Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.30%
U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.30%, while the S&P 500 index lost 0.44%, and the NASDAQ Composite index fell 0.64%.
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 Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which rose 2.79% or 7.50 points to trade at 275.84 at the close. Meanwhile, Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) added 2.04% or 4.94 points to end at 246.60 and Merck & Company Inc (NYSE:MRK) was up 1.57% or 1.29 points to 83.46 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which fell 3.49% or 2.08 points to trade at 57.57 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) declined 3.38% or 3.23 points to end at 92.26 and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was down 2.47% or 5.18 points to 204.73.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were NiSource Inc (NYSE:NI) which rose 5.26% to 23.01, ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD) which was up 3.65% to settle at 329.93 and Akamai Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:AKAM) which gained 3.51% to close at 106.46.
The worst performers were Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) which was down 7.44% to 32.16 in late trade, Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which lost 6.81% to settle at 22.59 and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) which was down 6.30% to 64.67 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were ObsEva SA (NASDAQ:OBSV) which rose 68.65% to 4.25, Ceragon Networks Ltd (NASDAQ:CRNT) which was up 55.56% to settle at 4.900 and DBV Technologies (NASDAQ:DBVT) which gained 52.67% to close at 5.71.
The worst performers were Cardiff Oncology Inc (NASDAQ:CRDF) which was down 28.03% to 14.085 in late trade, Dogness International Corp Class A (NASDAQ:DOGZ) which lost 24.30% to settle at 2.040 and Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CYCC) which was down 17.87% to 7.4000 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2027 to 1081 and 67 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2052 fell and 1012 advanced, while 60 ended unchanged.
Shares in ABIOMED Inc (NASDAQ:ABMD) rose to 52-week highs; rising 3.65% or 11.62 to 329.93. Shares in Ceragon Networks Ltd (NASDAQ:CRNT) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 55.56% or 1.750 to 4.900.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 1.16% to 23.52.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.37% or 25.30 to $1826.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.56% or 1.37 to hit $52.20 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 2.62% or 1.48 to trade at $54.94 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.63% to 1.2080, while USD/JPY rose 0.06% to 103.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.59% at 90.748.
Dow Off Lows, But Remains in Red on Recovery Worries; Banks Slump
Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.00%
The dollar edged higher Friday after President-elect Joe Biden outlined his plans for additional stimulus, but gains are likely to be limited after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell declined to join any discussion about reducing monetary stimulus.
At 4 AM ET (0800 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was up 0.1% at 90.267, rebounding from last week’s near three-year low. USD/JPY was down 0.1% at 103.67, while the risk-sensitive AUD/USD was down 0.3% at 0.7753.
Biden released details of his $1.9 trillion spending plan overnight, including more direct payments to households, an expansion of jobless benefits and an enlargement of vaccinations and virus-testing programs.
The proposal has been expected ever since the Democrats won control of the Senate in early January, but questions over how his administration plans to foot the bill has driven Treasury yields higher, supporting the greenback.
Still, gains are limited after Fed Chair Jerome Powell adopted a very dovish tone in a live-streamed interview on Thursday, although he didn’t explicitly rule out a tapering of bond purchases toward year-end. The Fed doesn’t expect to raise interest rates until 2023 at the earliest. Powell said:
“Now is not the time to be talking about exit” from the central bank’s easy monetary policies, the economy is far from our goals.”
Last Friday’s jobs report showed the U.S. lost 140,000 payroll positions in December, while the December CPI annual figure advanced 1.4%, still below the 1.7% average over the last 10 years.
The Fed’s low interest rate policy and asset-buying program have weighed heavily on the dollar.
There’s an abundance of U.S. economic data to digest later Friday, including December retail sales, PPI and industrial production.
Elsewhere, GBP/USD fell 0.2% to 1.3665 after data showed Britain’s economy shrank by 2.6% in November, the first monthly fall in output since April and the country’s initial Covid lockdown. The economy is now 8.5% smaller than it was before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in February.
EUR/USD fell 0.1% to 1.2140, only marginally dipping despite the political turmoil in Italy, the euro-zone’s third largest economy, with the ruling administration under pressure after a small party within the coalition withdrawing its support.
The spillover into the foreign exchange market should be limited, said analysts at ING, in a research note, given “we see limited risk of a material widening in the BTP-Bund spread which is set to benefit from the European Central Bank’s heavy purchases.”
See also:
It’s another week of lost luster for gold at the expense of a charging dollar whose strength could barely be explained with the currency debasement expected from President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus.
U.S. markets swirled in a sea of red toward Friday’s close from woeful December numbers for everything from retail sales to producer price index, manufacturing and consumer sentiment. Joining the doleful party was gold, which was supposed to be the “safe-haven” – or hedge or panacea, whatever you called it – from this.
Gold for February delivery on New York’s Comex settled Friday’s official session at $1,829.90 an ounce, down $21.50, or 1.2%. While the benchmark gold futures contract dipped just 0.3% on the week, that loss added to last week’s slide of 3.2% – handing the precious metal its worst two weeks in a row since November.
Even more remarkable than gold’s slide was the dollar’s stand-alone party amid the gloom across stocks and commodities.
Supposedly a haven in its own right, the Dollar Index, pitted against a basket of six other major currencies, rose 0.6% on the day to show a reading of 90.7. The greenback had started the year at below 90 but could head above 91 by next week, some forex dealers said.
The dollar was an outlier on Friday despite a tumble in bond yields associated with the benchmark U.S. 10-year U.S. note, whose resurgence last week had been the catalyst for the greenback’s comeback.
But what made the whole thing even more bizarre was the dollar’s defiance of the rocketing U.S. deficit and debt forecast from the Biden’s administration’s fiscal plans to fight Covid-19. The $1.9 trillion stimulus announced by the president-elect on Thursday isn’t expected be the last for the year, by any long shot.
Typically, when market-propping spending like this is announced by leadership, investors’ risk-on appetite reaches a fever-pitch, sending stocks to commodities, including gold, to highs while the dollar plumbs lows.
Still, there might be reason to Friday’s consternation in markets, with Wall Street musing over talk in Washington’s political grapevine that Biden’s stimulus might still meet resistance in the Senate despite the simple majority that his Democrat Party commands.
Yet, the dollar’s performance – even with the likelihood of a reduced stimulus – bucks logic, especially with Federal Reserve officials spending all week to deny any speculation of a tapering soon in relief measures or an imminent hike in interest rates standing at near zero.
See also:
Oil prices fell the most in a month on Friday, tumbling more than 2%, after concerns over Covid-19 lockdowns in top crude destination China hit a market that resisted for weeks worries about piling fuel stockpiles at home.
A resurgence in the dollar, the currency on which oil trades, also made buying of the commodity less competitive for holders of the euro and other change – indirectly hitting demand for crude.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the key indicator for U.S. crude, settled down $1.21, or 2.2.%, at $52.36 per barrel. It was WTI’s biggest one-day slide since Dec. 18, although it rounded out the week with a 0.5% gain.
London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, settled down $1.32, or 2.3%, at $55.10. For the week, Brent lost 89 cents, or 1.6%.
China ramped up lockdowns on Friday after reporting the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases in more than 10 months. The world’s No. 2 economy capped a week that has resulted in more than 28 million people under lockdown as it suffered its first coronavirus death on the mainland since May.
Bjornar Tonnage from Rystad Energy was quoted saying by Reuters:
“The Covid-19 pandemic’s spread is taking centre stage again and traders are getting increasingly worried about the long duration of European lockdown and about the new restrictions (in) China. The market is structurally bullish, but it may be getting too ahead of forward-looking fundamentals.”
In the United States, fuel products had been the oil complex’s weakest link for months.
Gasoline stockpiles rose 4.395 million barrels during the first week of January, compared with expectations for a 2.69 million-barrel build, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
Stockpiles of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by a more-than-expected 4.786 million barrels against expectations for a 2.67 million-barrel increase, the EIA data showed.
See also:
Milder weather and decreased demand resulted in U.S. natural gas spot prices averaging in 2020 the lowest in decades, since at least 1997, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Thursday.
Early in 2020, demand for heating was lower than usual due to milder winter weather, while declining demand with lower economic activity during the pandemic dragged down consumption, production, and spot prices of natural gas for the remainder of the year.
The average spot price of natural gas at the Henry Hub, the U.S. benchmark was $2.05 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in 2020.
The spot price hit record lows in the first half of 2020 due to mild winter early in the year and depressed demand later on with the pandemic. The average monthly Henry Hub spot price in the first six months of 2020 was $1.81/MMBtu. Monthly prices reached as low as $1.63 per MMBtu in June, the lowest monthly inflation-adjusted price since at least 1989, according to EIA estimates. The monthly average Henry Hub price was less than $2/MMBtu in each month from February through June. Before 2020, the Henry Hub price had averaged less than $2/MMBtu in just one month – March 2016, the EIA said last summer.
At the start of 2021, natural gas prices jumped by 3.5 percent on Monday due to expectations of colder weather and projected higher demand for heating.
Gas demand for the week January 6 through 12 is expected to be low, according to NatGasWeather, with demand seen rising over the weekend, but lighter again around the middle of next week as much of the US warms back above normal.
The U.S. benchmark prices, however, are much lower than the price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia, which has recently jumped to a six-year high. The high LNG prices are expected to incentivize increased U.S. exports of LNG in the coming weeks and months.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
.
