Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.33%
U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Consumer Services and Healthcare sectors led shares higher while losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.33%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.12%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.08%.
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The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which rose 0.84% or 0.39 points to trade at 46.75 at the close. Meanwhile, Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) added 0.73% or 0.78 points to end at 107.30 and Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) was up 0.59% or 0.54 points to 92.13 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), which fell 1.44% or 2.38 points to trade at 163.03 at the close. Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) declined 1.12% or 0.77 points to end at 68.17 and Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) was down 0.91% or 0.84 points to 91.18.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) which rose 3.30% to 7.51, Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) which was up 2.63% to settle at 32.38 and DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) which gained 2.38% to close at 24.96.
The worst performers were Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC) which was down 5.40% to 9.64 in late trade, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) which lost 3.47% to settle at 22.95 and EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) which was down 3.28% to 19.18 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were vTv Therapeutics Inc(NASDAQ:VTVT) which rose 120.39% to 2.27, Cool Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:AWSM) which was up 51.88% to settle at 2.020 and Monaker Group Inc (NASDAQ:MKGI) which gained 41.19% to close at 1.2001.
The worst performers were CLPS Inc (NASDAQ:CLPS) which was down 32.23% to 2.25 in late trade, ReShape Lifesciences Inc (NASDAQ:RSLS) which lost 24.06% to settle at 0.2597 and Uxin Ltd (NASDAQ:UXIN) which was down 22.91% to 5.08 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1965 to 1116 and 75 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1797 rose and 853 declined, while 75 ended unchanged.
Shares in CLPS Inc (NASDAQ:CLPS) fell to all time lows; falling 32.23% or 1.07 to 2.25. Shares in ReShape Lifesciences Inc (NASDAQ:RSLS) fell to all time lows; down 24.06% or 0.0823 to 0.2597.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.41% to 28.34.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.14% or 1.85 to $1282.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.10% or 0.49 to hit $45.10 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.51% or 0.27 to trade at $53.00 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.17% to 1.1448, while USD/JPY fell 0.71% to 110.21.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 95.890.
See also:
Mexico stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/BMV IPC up 0.13%
Canada stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/TSX Composite up 0.43%
Wall Street rally pauses, but stocks mint weekly gain (Reuters)
The safe-haven yen rose on Friday in Asia following reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering banning U.S. companies from using equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE (HK:0763).
Stephen Innes, head of Asian trading at Oanda, said:
“With the end of the 90-day tariff moratorium looming ominously on the horizon, this announcement is yet another bump in the rocky path to a trade resolution.”
The news came one day after Bloomberg said China and the U.S. are set to resume trade talks in early January. Washington and Beijing earlier this month agreed to a 90-day ceasefire in their tariff dispute.
The USD/JPY pair traded 0.4% lower to 110.61 following the news, while the U.S. dollar index slipped 0.1% to 95.917.
Meanwhile, the USD/CNY pair fell 0.2% to 6.8565 as the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has set the yuan reference rate for today’s markets at 6.8632, versus yesterday’s rate of 6.8894.
On Thursday, official data showed China’s industrial profits fell for the first time since December 2015.
The decline was due to slowing growth in sales and producer prices, and rising costs, He ping of the statistics bureau said in a statement accompanying the data, while analysts noted rising trade tensions with the United States also piled pressure on China’s economic growth.
See also:
- EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro rallies during the week (FXEmpire)
- GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British pound facing resistance (FXEmpire)
Gold’s target for $1,300 remains intact, but gold bugs seem in no hurry to get there, awaiting equity markets to sink for the next big gold move higher.
COMEX gold futures hit new six-month highs on Friday, reaching $1,284.55 per troy ounce.
But instead of settling at those peaks in a push toward $1,300, the market gave back some, to finish up $1.45, or 0.1%, at $1,280.65.
Gold’s retreat at the highs came as U.S. stocks flitted between gains and losses on Friday. Walter Pehowich, executive vice-president at Dillon Gage Metals in Addison, Texas said:
“Going into 2019, I expect the price of gold to benefit from geopolitical risks and a softening dollar. I expect physical demand for gold to increase exponentially, as investors watch the U.S. debt explode and the costs of entitlements getting totally out of hand as our politicians continue to ignore all the warning signs.”
The dollar index, measured against a basket of six currencies, hit a one-week low of 95.743.
For gold, it was the ninth positive close in 10 days of trading, boosted by the general slump in equities amid fears of a global recession and worries over the partial U.S. government shutdown since last week. For the year, though, gold remains on track for a 2% loss.
In other precious metals on COMEX, silver futures settled up 0.8% at $15.44 a troy ounce.
Palladium fell 0.8% to $1,185.20 per ounce. Sister metal platinum also lost 0.8% to finish at $789.80.
In base metals, COMEX copper rose 0.4% to settle at $2.68 per pound.
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It looks like oil could finish the year at $45 per barrel, barring another plunge on Wall Street, of course.
For the first time in more than a week, West Texas Intermediate crude prices remained higher for most of the day, despite U.S. stock indices bouncing between positive and negative territory through the day.
U.S. WTI settled up 72 cents, or 1.6%, at $45.33 per barrel, after settling down $1.61, or 3.5%, on Thursday.
With just another day of trading left to 2018, WTI is down 25% on the year and is off 42% from four-year highs of nearly $77 a barrel hit in early October. For the week, it was down 0.5%, for a third consecutive week of losses.
Brent was up 58 cents, or 1.1%, at $53.31 per barrel by 2:58 PM ET (19:58 GMT). For the week it was down nearly 3%.
Brent remains down 20% on the year and is off 39% from four-year highs of nearly $87 a barrel hit in early October.
Oil prices rose on Friday despite a drop of less than 50,000 barrels in U.S. crude inventories reported for last week by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The market had forecast a 2.87-million-barrel decline.
While the rebound hardly covered the 4% price drop in the previous session, the mid-$40 psychological support building in the market since Christmas Eve’s 7% battering was evident. Until Monday, many traders had been bracing for the possibility of WTI breaking below $40.
Tariq Zahir of Tyche Capital Advisors, an oil-focused fund in New York, said:
“I think we’ll probably be range-bound at around $45 from here as I don’t expect people to be putting on major positions with just another day left to the year-end. But that, of course, will depend on what the Dow does.”
Thin holiday trading conditions, combined with fears of a global economic slowdown and an ongoing partial U.S. government shutdown has forced oil traders to look at the stock market, rather than energy fundamentals, for daily guidance. The 7% plunge on Christmas Eve aside, WTI jumped 9% on Wednesday, in another Wall Street-inspired move.
Until this week’s swings, oil prices have mostly traded one-way — down — since tumbling from four-year highs in October, despite OPEC’s best efforts to arrest the decline.
Faced with oversupplies from record high U.S., Saudi and Russian production, OPEC pledged on Dec. 7 to cut 1.2 million barrels per day in global oil output over the next six months under its enlarged OPEC+ pact that does not include the United States.
Instead of rallying, oil prices hit 18-month lows in the three weeks since that announcement.
See also:
- Can OPEC Stop the Oil Price Collapse as Members Break Away? (Motley Fool)
- U.S. Crude Oil Inventories Fell by 0.05 M Barrels Last Week: EIA
- United States Baker Hughes US Oil Rig Count up to 885 from previous 883 (FXStreet)
Natural Gas (FXEmpire)
The natural gas markets struggle during the previous week, initially trying to break above the $3.75 level before breaking down to fill the gap at the $3.25 level. This of course is a very bearish turn of events, but we have sold off so rapidly that it’s difficult to sell at this point.
The 50 EMA on the weekly chart has offered technical support, but quite frankly I think what we are more than likely going to see is a short-term bounce that we consider selling again. I think the $3.75 level will also offer resistance, and I’d be more than willing to sell an exhaustive candle in that area. I also believe that the $4.00 level is even more resistance based upon exhaustion.
Chris Lewis says:
“I think at this point we will continue to see rallies fail, because we are starting to focus on the springtime in the United States which is a historically negative time. Beyond that, there are concerns about global growth, and that of course will weigh upon the idea of higher natural gas demand. With that in mind, and the fact that we got well ahead of ourselves early in December, I think that the entire bubble has popped, and now we are looking at a return to normalcy. With that being the case, there’s so much in the way of supply that rallies are to be sold as we should continue to not only break down to the $3.25 level, but I think we will eventually go to the $3.00 level as well.”
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