Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.26%
U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors led shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Technology and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.26% to hit a new 1-month high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.09%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.17%.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side for social media buttons.
The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which rose 1.64% or 0.82 points to trade at 50.92 at the close. Meanwhile, Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) added 1.31% or 2.98 points to end at 231.13 and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) was up 0.94% or 0.66 points to 70.93 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which fell 0.68% or 0.95 points to trade at 139.10 at the close. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) declined 0.61% or 0.71 points to end at 114.73 and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) was down 0.40% or 0.48 points to 120.19.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) which rose 4.47% to 24.52, Perrigo Company PLC (NYSE:PRGO) which was up 3.65% to settle at 49.92 and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which gained 3.55% to close at 103.84.
The worst performers were Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) which was down 2.98% to 30.56 in late trade, Monster Beverage Corp (NASDAQ:MNST) which lost 2.72% to settle at 57.17 and WEC Energy Group Inc (NYSE:WEC) which was down 2.31% to 93.13 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Endo International PLC (NASDAQ:ENDP) which rose 47.67% to 3.48, Microbot Medical Inc (NASDAQ:MBOT) which was up 44.08% to settle at 7.0600 and Superconductor Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:SCON) which gained 24.62% to close at 0.8100.
The worst performers were Domo Inc (NASDAQ:DOMO) which was down 37.45% to 15.77 in late trade, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CDMO) which lost 22.98% to settle at 5.4300 and Paringa Resources Ltd (NASDAQ:PNRL) which was down 20.00% to 2.40 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1632 to 1307 and 103 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1463 fell and 1188 advanced, while 99 ended unchanged.
Shares in Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) rose to all time highs; up 1.31% or 2.98 to 231.13.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 7.81% to 15.00 a new 1-month low.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.67% or 10.20 to $1515.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.71% or 0.40 to hit $56.70 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.10% or 0.67 to trade at $61.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.03% to 1.1030, while USD/JPY fell 0.00% to 106.92.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 98.377.
See also:
The U.S. dollar fell on Friday after the economy added fewer jobs than expected in August, in what analysts took as a sign that the economy remains near to full employment.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six major currencies, fell 0.1% to 98.285 as of 9:01 AM ET (13:01 GMT). That was due largely to a drop against the loonie, which rose to a one-month high after Canada’s employment report – posted at the same time – showed a much stronger than expected increase in employment.
By 9 AM, USD/CAD was at 1.3184, compared to 1.3340 earlier in the week before the Bank of Canada’s policy meeting.
The Japanese yen, seen as a safe-haven in times of market turmoil, also strengthened to 106.82 against the dollar from 107.00 before the report.
Nonfarm payrolls came in at 130,000 in August, the Labor Department reported, which was much less than the 160,000 expected. Still, the participation rate ticked up slightly, while average hourly earnings rose 0.4%, beating forecasts. The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7%.
Overall, markets still see a 92% chance that Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its policy meeting later this month.
Meanwhile sterling fell after the High Court in London ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempt to close parliament next week was legal. The ruling is expected to be appealed in the Supreme Court, but increases uncertainty about whether or not the U.K. will leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal. Lawmakers took took control of Parliament this week, and denied Johnson’s request for a snap election, voting to force Johnson to put off Brexit for the third time.
GBP/USD fell 0.2% to 1.2306 while EUR/USD rose 0.1% to 1.1040.
See also:
- Forex – Dollar Holds Gains vs Havens on Hopes for Strong Jobs Data
- Dollar index slips on mixed U.S. August payrolls data (Reuters)
Gold prices stabilized at lower levels early Friday in New York, after suffering their biggest one-day drop of the year on Thursday in the wake of surprisingly strong U.S. economic data and hopes for a de-escalation of the U.S.-China trade war.
At 8 AM ET (1200 GMT), gold futures for December delivery on the Comex exchange were at $1,513.70 a troy ounce, down 0.8% from late Thursday but up from an intraday low of $1,511.25 posted in the European morning.
Spot gold was at $1,506.06, down 0.9%.
The sharp pullback came after gold hit a six-year high earlier in the week, the result of rising risk-aversion among portfolio investors against a backdrop of slowing global growth and lower nominal returns on government bonds around the world. Around $17 trillion of bonds worldwide are now trading at negative yields.
It also came amid the first signs that central banks, whose buying drove the early stages of this year’s rally, had reduced their purchases more recently.
Some, at least, expect that to be a temporary aberration. Duvvuri Subarrao, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, wrote in a blog published Friday by the World Gold Council:
“If emerging markets cannot rely on the dollar as a guard against exchange rate instability, then we have to build our own defences. Holding gold within our reserves is an integral part of that self-defense.”
Elsewhere, silver futures were pulling back more dramatically, falling 2.8% to $18.28 an ounce. Platinum was down 3.2% at $932.90 an ounce.
Copper futures were down 0.4% at $2.63 a pound.
See also:
- Gold Prices Down as Global Stocks Recover on Easing Trade Jitters
Gold Tumbles Its Most for 2019 as U.S.-China Talks Set to Reopen
It’s back to parsing the tea leaves for crude traders, as Jerome Powell’s vow to support the U.S. economic expansion helped oil prices to their biggest weekly gain since July.
The gains came as back-to-back U.S. stockpile declines and a promised restart of trade talks also faced off with an impending seasonal decline in oil demand amid signs that some in OPEC were overproducing.
But Powell’s remarks Friday in Zurich that he saw little chance of a recession any time soon helped send stock prices higher and spread to the oil markets.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark blend, settled up 22 cents, or 0.4%, at $56.52 per barrel. For the week, it rose 2.6%, its biggest weekly advance since July.
London-traded Brent crude, the international benchmark blend, extended its perch above the key $60 level, rising 52 cents, or 0.9%, to $61.47.
WTI “should be just ‘sitting’ at $55 in my view and probably $59 in Brent,” Scott Shelton, energy futures broker at ICAP in Durham, N.C., said in an email to Investing.com:
“But noise generated by CTA systematic trading and ‘algos-generated pain trades’ is driving the market as it reacts to the macro story, which in my opinion is largely moot for the oil space in the near term, until we can get a better feel for supply growth in 2020.”
Bloomberg reported earlier that analysts at Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) (0|CBKG}}) had cut its Brent crude forecasts by $5 a barrel to an average of $60 through the end of 2020, while UBS said the worsening demand outlook would push it down as far $55.
Since August, crude oil has been whipsawed by volatility, with daily moves of more than 2% being the new normal.
On Thursday, news of a second straight weekly drop in U.S. crude stockpiles and scheduled resumption of U.S.-China trade talks in October sent Brent up more than 2% intraday, extending the previous day’s 4% surge, before the blend settled the day just about flat.
Friday’s early slide came as the market took cognizance of what was seen as the “shoulder season” for demand – the period between late summer and mid-winter when the need for fuel is typically low.
Crude prices also fell as a number of private estimates all pointed to OPEC producers raising their overall output in August, despite signs of faltering global demand.
News agencies Bloomberg and Reuters and price-reporting service Argus all calculated that OPEC’s combined output rose last month, by anything between an average of 80,000 barrels a day and 200,000 barrels a day.
One conspicuous source of overproduction was Iraq, which pumped a new record-high average of 4.88 million barrels a day in August, well above its agreed ceiling under the so-called OPEC+ deal on output restraint.
The estimates stoked latent fears of a new glut forming in world markets, given a steady stream of weaker-than-expected global data, especially from the manufacturing sector.
See also:
- Oil Prices Slide Again on Signs of Rising OPEC Output
- Trump in high-stakes balancing act between oil and corn ahead of 2020 bid (Reuters)
Natural Gas
No report this week.
.
