Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
Wall Street up more than 1 percent on last day of tumultuous quarter
U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday as technology shares bounced back from a sharp selloff ahead of a long weekend that will mark the end of a turbulent quarter for Wall Street.
Shares of Facebook (O:FB), Apple (O:AAPL), Alphabet (O:GOOGL) and Microsoft (O:MSFT) were up between 1 percent and 4 percent, driving a 1.7 percent gain in the S&P technology index (SPLRCT).
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Still, the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Dow (DJI) are on track to log their worst quarter in more than two years on concerns over a global trade war and aggressive interest rate hikes, as well as a rout in technology stocks caused by the Facebook data scandal. Mark Esposito, president of Esposito Securities LLC,said:
“People are worried about rising interest rates. That has led to market volatility and we’ll see more of that.”
Global investors have cut their equity exposure to a four-month low in March, according to a Reuters poll, while reducing their holdings of U.S. stocks to the lowest in nearly two years.
At 12:35 p.m. ET (1635 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was up 253.56 points, or 1.06 percent. The S&P 500 (SPX) was up 28.83 points, or 1.11 percent and the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) rose 84.60 points, or 1.22 percent.
All eleven major S&P 500 sectors were positive. Trading volumes are expected to be light, ahead of the long Easter weekend.
Economic data released on Thursday did little to change the expectations of interest rate hikes.
Core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation gauge, rose 1.6 percent on an annualized basis through February, in line with economists’ expectations.
Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, increased 0.2 percent last month after a similar gain in January.
Amazon (O:AMZN) fell more than 1 percent after President Donald Trump blasted the company with a list of complaints, a day after news website Axios reported that Trump wants to rein in the company’s growing power using federal antitrust laws.
GameStop (N:GME) shares dropped 9.3 percent after the company provided disappointing full-year sales forecast.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,333 to 529. On the Nasdaq, 2,152 issues rose and 716 fell.
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The U.S. dollar edged down against a basket of other currencies on Friday in a thinly traded day as major markets in the U.S. and Europe were closed for Easter weekend.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell 0.01% to 89.75 as of 4:42 AM ET (8:42 GMT).
The dollar was unmoved by a flurry of economic data on Thursday that showed a strengthening U.S. economy.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 1.6% in the 12 months through February, in line with economists’ forecast.
Another report showed that initial jobless claims dropped by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 215,000 for the week ended March 24, beating economists’ forecast for a drop to 230,000.
Meanwhile Commerce Department said consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, met expectations, rising 0.2% last month, meeting economists’ forecasts.
European and U.S. markets were closed on Friday, and trading is expected to be thin.
The dollar fell to a low against the safe haven yen, with USD/JPY losing 0.23% to trade at 106.19.
The euro was higher, with EUR/USD up 0.24% to 1.2330. Meanwhile GBP/USDjumped 0.29% to 1.4059.
Elsewhere, the Australian dollar was higher, with AUD/USD rising 0.33% at 0.7701, while NZD/USD inched up 0.19% to 0.7245.
This week speculators became more bullish on the euro, crude oil, gold, the pound sterling.
Note: The data is for the week ending on Tuesday 27 March so the last three days of trading are not reflected.
Gold prices remained subdued as the dollar rose from lows, weakening demand for the precious metal but a slight uptick in geopolitical tensions stemmed losses.
Gold futures for April delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell by $2.20, or 0.17%, to $1,322.00 a troy ounce.
Gold prices fell as the dollar bounced off sessions lows to turn positive amid mostly encouraging U.S. economic data which did little to derail the prospect of further U.S. rate hikes in the coming months.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 1.6% in the 12 months through February, in line with economists’ forecast. MUFG’s Chris Rupkey said:
“Policymakers can be confident about the inflation outlook and will likely keep with the plan to raise rates a couple more times this year.”
Gold is sensitive to moves higher in the U.S. dollar – a stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for holders of foreign currency, thus, reduces investor demand for the precious metal.
An uptick in geopolitical uncertainty stemmed losses in the precious as Russia threatened retaliation against U.S. and its allies for expelling more than 100 Russian over alleged poisoning of Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England.
In other precious metal trade, silver futures rose 0.23% to $16.29 a troy ounce, while platinum futures fell 0.69% to $934.20 an ounce.
Copper rose 0.90% to $3.029, while natural gas rose 1.823% to $2.70.
Crude oil prices settled higher on Thursday, notching a quarterly gain, as traders cheered data showing the first fall in U.S. oil rigs in three weeks, pointing to possible tightening in domestic output.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for May delivery rose 0.87% cents to settle at $64.94 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange, Brentgained 0.63% to trade at $69.19 a barrel. WTI crude ended the quarter up 7.5%.
The number of oil rigs operating in the US fell by six to 798,easing from three-year highs, according to data from energy services firm Baker Hughes.
That helped firm support for crude prices amid positive reports Wednesday suggesting that OPEC and Russia were working on a long-term pact to keep oil prices steady amid increasing competition from U.S. shale producers. OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Wednesday:
“We are looking for a very long-term cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC producing countries.”
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to slash global inventories to the five year-average. But their efforts have been somewhat stifled by rising non-OPEC output, led by U.S.
Inventories of U.S. crude rose by 1.643 million barrels for the week ended March 23, confounding expectations for a decline of 287,000 barrels, according to data from the Energy Information Agency (EIA).
U.S. production, meanwhile, rose to record 10.43 million barrels a day, as the U.S. cemented its position as the world’s second largest oil producer, behind Russia but above Saudi Arabia.
Natural Gas (Thursday Report)
Natural gas futures came off their best levels of the session on Thursday, after data showed that domestic supplies in storage fell less than expected last week.
Front-month U.S. natural gas futures rose 4.7 cents, or around 1.7%, to $2.744 per million British thermal units (btu) by 10:34AM ET (1434GMT). Futures were at $2.757 prior to the release of the supply data.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas storage in the U.S. fell by 63 billion cubic feet (bcf) in the week ended March 23, disappointing forecasts for a withdrawal of 75 bcf.
That compared with a decline of 86 bcf in the preceding week, a fall of 43 bcf a year earlier and a five-year average drop of 46 bcf.
Total natural gas in storage currently stands at 1.383 trillion cubic feet (tcf), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That figure is 672 bcf, or around 32.7%, lower than levels at this time a year ago, and 346 bcf, or roughly 20.0%, below the five-year average for this time of year.
Meanwhile, updated weather forecasting models showed that cooler than normal temperatures will spread across the northern United States during the first week of April.
However, market experts warned that futures are likely to remain vulnerable in the near-term as the coldest part of the winter has effectively passed.
Spring usually sees the weakest demand for natural gas in the U.S, as the absence of extreme temperatures curbs demand for heating and air conditioning.
The heating season from November through March is the peak demand period for U.S. gas consumption.
