Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.41%
U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Utilities and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.41%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.35%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.07%.
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 Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which rose 3.51% or 1.89 points to trade at 55.72 at the close. Meanwhile, Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) added 1.38% or 0.62 points to end at 45.44 and Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) was up 0.88% or 1.58 points to 180.75 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which fell 6.32% or 3.20 points to trade at 47.45 at the close. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined 1.55% or 1.99 points to end at 126.71 and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) was down 1.28% or 3.51 points to 270.46.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) which rose 6.91% to 145.84, ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD) which was up 4.11% to settle at 293.58 and Martin Marietta Materials Inc (NYSE:MLM) which gained 4.09% to close at 276.61.
The worst performers were Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) which was down 6.32% to 47.45 in late trade, Macerich Company (NYSE:MAC) which lost 5.66% to settle at 10.51 and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) which was down 5.64% to 275.78 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Mereo BioPharma Group PLC ADR (NASDAQ:MREO) which rose 62.44% to 3.590, VistaGen Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTGN) which was up 50.16% to settle at 1.3900 and Cyren Ltd (NASDAQ:CYRN) which gained 45.03% to close at 1.450.
The worst performers were Mingzhu Logistics Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:YGMZ) which was down 37.09% to 11.01 in late trade, Mesoblast Ltd (NASDAQ:MESO) which lost 31.69% to settle at 9.27 and Frequency Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FREQ) which was down 20.63% to 31.51 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1856 to 1241 and 78 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1623 fell and 1407 advanced, while 61 ended unchanged.
Shares in Mereo BioPharma Group PLC ADR (NASDAQ:MREO) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 62.44% or 1.380 to 3.590. Shares in VistaGen Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VTGN) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 50.16% or 0.4643 to 1.3900.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.64% to 21.57.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.24% or 4.45 to $1885.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.49% or 0.72 to hit $49.08 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.51% or 0.78 to trade at $52.28 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.13% to 1.2250, while USD/JPY rose 0.22% to 103.33.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 89.910.
Dow Falls as Lawmakers Struggle to Find Breakthrough on Stimulus
Wall Street Opens Mixed Ahead of ‘Quadruple Witching’; Dow Flat
Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.20%
The dollar edged higher Friday, rebounded to a degree after recent sharp selling, but this safe haven remains largely friendless as risk appetite grows.
At 3:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was up 0.1% at 89.820, just above the 2-1/2-year low hit on Thursday. The index is down 1.2% for the week so far, on course for its worst week in a month, and has fallen 6.5% this year to date.
USD/JPY rose 0.2% to 103.35, after falling as far as 102.88 Thursday, with the Bank of Japan keeping its key interest rates and asset purchases unchanged, and extending its special support programs for pandemic-hit businesses by six months.
EUR/USD fell 0.1% to 1.2253, suffering minor profit-taking, after reaching 1.2272 earlier Friday, levels not seen since March 2018. The risk-sensitive AUD/USD was down 0.2% at 0.7608, yet is on course for its seventh consecutive weekly gain.
ING analysts said in a research note:
“With Fed policy still to translate into negative real rates and the odds of U.S. fiscal stimulus rising, there is more downside to USD.”
U.S. congressional negotiators still haven’t come to an agreement over a new coronavirus-relief bill, but pressure is growing as the whole government could be shut down unless a spending bill, to which a pandemic relief measure can be attached, is passed before Friday ends.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday a bipartisan deal “appears to be close at hand.”
Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve vowed to keep its monetary funding ongoing until the U.S. economic recovery is secure.
The weekly initial jobless claims rose to 885,000 on Thursday, reflecting the escalating economic toll from the Covid-19 pandemic. This suggests the central bank will have to keep its policies extremely accommodative for quite some time to come.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD fell 0.5% to 1.3515, coming off a 31-month high overnight, as Britain and the European Union struck a downbeat tone about the likelihood of an agreement.
U.K. retail sales dropped by 3.8% on the month in November, their biggest decline since the first lockdown in April.
The Bank of Russia is likely to keep interest rates at 4.25% for the third consecutive policy meeting later Friday as inflation continued to increase above target.
Annual inflation will reach 4.5% by year end and is unlikely to exceed 5% at the peak in February, according to Governor Elvira Nabiullina, above the central bank’s target of 4%.
USD/RUB rose 0.7% to 73.356, with this pair up over 18% so far this year.
See also:
Gold prices dipped Friday as the battered dollar rebounded from 2-½ lows. But that didn’t stop the yellow metal from posting a third straight weekly rise from gains accumulated on bets that the U.S. Congress will soon pass another coronavirus fiscal relief.
Printing more money at the expense of inflation has always been a prime ingredient for boosting commodity prices, and most natural resource markets were up this week on talk of the impending coronavirus stimulus, as well as the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy more bonds to help the pandemic-struck economy.
But it wasn’t the same everywhere. US equity markets fell hard on Friday, barely holding to their weekly gain, as stock dabblers seemed to tire from the “it’s coming soon” pledges of lawmakers on Congress and headline writers about the prospect of stimulus – rather than an actual deal.
Commodity investors, however, dug their heels in, despite the delay in the relief agreement.
Oil prices rose 1.5% on the day and about 5% on the day.
Gold barely sold off and was down less than $17 from Thursday’s peak of nearly $1,902 an ounce.
At Friday’s settlement, gold futures for February delivery on New York’s Comex settled at $1,888.90, down just 1.50, or 0.1% .
For the week, though, the benchmark gold futures contract rose 2.5%. It was the third straight weekly gain for the contract, which has risen $108, or 6%, in that period. Ed Moya, analyst at New York’s OANDA, said :
“Risk appetite over the past few days has been fueled on optimism Congress would finally deliver a coronavirus relief bill. Some investors that bought the rumor don’t have the patience to wait for the actual bill to get finalized and are closing out of positions.”
Moya added:
“Gold appears unfazed … and should eventually stabilize above the $1900 level next week.”
TD Securities concurred with that view, citing the Fed’s decision on Wednesday to buy at least $80 billion per month of Treasury securities and $40 billion per month of agency mortgage-backed securities in a bid to provide maximum employment to Americans and price stability to the economy.
See also:
- Gold Settles up after Piercing $1,900 on Dollar, US Stimulus Hopes (Earlier Thursday)
Oil prices were up for a seventh straight week, the longest winning streak in 20 months, as bets for economic recovery in 2021 were turbocharged by expectations that a new Covid-19 fiscal relief worth almost $1 trillion will pass Congress soon.
Printing more money at the expense of inflation has always been a prime ingredient for boosting commodity prices, and most natural resource markets this week were up on talk of the impending coronavirus stimulus as well as the Federal Reserve’s pledge to buy more bonds to help the pandemic-struck economy.
But crude prices have also been helped by the trade’s cherry-picking of positive data while ignoring any negative news, including that of huge inventory builds and spikes in Covid-19 infections and resulting lockdowns, that could hurt the market. Bjornar Tonhaugen, analyst at Rystad Energy, was quoted saying on Friday:
“Whether oil prices can remain as high and keep these gains is still questionable amid the demand destruction lockdowns are causing.”
Scott Shelton, energy futures broker at ICAP (LON:NXGN) in Durham, North Carolina, concurred with that view, adding:
“With the lack of conviction from the oil market on its value, and unwillingness to take risk into year end, I think that we will be ‘following the herd’ for the foreseeable future.”
That “herd” meant an unbroken streak of weekly gains since the week ended Oct. 23, that has cummulatively upped benchmark crude contracts by as much as $14 a barrel or nearly 40%.
In Friday’s session, New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the leading indicator for U.S. crude, settled up 45 cents, or 0.9%, at $49.10 per barrel. The session high was $49.18 – less than $1 from the widely-anticipated $50 target of market bulls. WTI has not traded at $50 levels since February.
For the week, WTI was more than 5%. The accumulated gain over the seven weeks was around 36%. It was also the longest winning stretch for oil since April 2019.
London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, settled up 76 cents, or 1.5%, at $52.26 per barrel. For the week, Brent rose about almost 5%. Its total gain over the seven weeks was nearly 40%.
Oil prices have been on a tear for almost two months now on bets that people across the world might soon be able to travel freely as millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines were being prepared for delivery over the course of the next few weeks, after approval by relevant health authorities.
The gains have, however, come just as reports early this week showed hefty rises in weekly U.S. crude inventories and stockpiles of fuel products gasoline and distillates.
And while global producer group OPEC+ has managed to prevent its 13 members and 10 allies from arbitrarily raising production, the market still seems indifferent to steadily creeping Libyan output. There’s also the potential of Iranian crude shipments returning to the market by early 2021 if U.S. sanctions against Tehran are dropped by the incoming Biden administration.
That aside, U.S. oil rigs – the gauge for determining forthcoming production – has risen 13 weeks out of the last 14, reaching 263 from last week’s count of 258.
See also:
Natural Gas (Hellenic Shipping News)
US working natural gas in storage posted its first triple-digit build of the heating season last week as South Central accounted for the largest regional draw on cooler weather and record-high LNG feedgas demand.
Storage inventories decreased by 122 Bcf to 3.726 Tcf for the week ended Dec. 11, the US Energy Information Administration reported Dec. 17.
The withdrawal was weaker than an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts calling for a 127 Bcf pull. Responses to the survey ranged from a 103 to 145 Bcf withdrawal. However, the pull was stronger than the 97 Bcf draw reported during the same week last year as well as the five-year average withdrawal of 105 Bcf, according to EIA data.
The draw was also stronger than the 91 Bcf withdrawal reported the week prior.
Residential and commercial demand grew by 3.5 Bcf/d week on week and power demand gained 1.6 Bcf/d, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Incremental power demand was also spurred by falling wind generation, which declined by nearly 15 GWs, the equivalent of 2.5 Bcf/d in gas-fired generation. Total supply was up a marginal 100 MMcf/d week on week as lower US production was offset by a 700 MMcf/d increase in net Canadian imports.
Storage volumes now stand 284 Bcf, or 8.3%, more than the year-ago level of 3.442 Tcf and 243 Bcf, or 7%, more than the five-year average of 3.483 Tcf.
The NYMEX Henry Hub January contract slipped 3 cents to $2.64/MMBtu in trading following the release of the weekly storage report at 10:30 am ET. The remaining winter strip, February and March, also dipped 3 cents to average $2.63/MMBtu, a decline of 5 cents from the week prior.
Entering the Dec. 17 EIA report, the prompt-month January NYMEX contract has been in a well-defined range this week – oscillating between $2.60 and $2.70/MMBtu. The relatively narrow range appears to be linked to weather model uncertainty entering January with some models pointing to a colder regime, while others predict a milder background state, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.
So far this withdrawal season, inventory has declined by a net total of 229 Bcf. Over the past five years, stocks have decreased by an average of 497 Bcf by this time of the heating season.
Platts Analytics supply and demand model currently forecasts a 166 Bcf withdrawal for the week ending Dec. 18, which would shrink the surplus versus the five-year average by an additional 39 Bcf as cooler temperatures spike US-level demand week over week.
Colder temperatures have boosted residential and commercial demand by nearly 5 Bcf/d week on week. Colder temperatures also boosted power and industrial demand by 500 MMcf/d and 900 MMcf/d, respectively. Total supply could not keep pace with demand, with supply falling by about 400 MMcf/d – led by a 200 MMcf/d decline in US production.
Source: Platts
.
