Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks mixed at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.13%
U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Friday, as gains in the Oil & Gas, Industrials and Healthcare sectors led shares higher while losses in the Utilities, Telecoms and Consumer Goods sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.13%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.16%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.09%.
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The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), which rose 1.24% or 1.73 points to trade at 141.00 at the close. Meanwhile, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) added 1.30% or 0.79 points to end at 61.45 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 1.04% or 3.13 points to 305.45 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which fell 1.73% or 3.31 points to trade at 187.60 at the close. Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) declined 1.32% or 1.89 points to end at 141.65 and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) was down 1.08% or 3.61 points to 329.46.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) which rose 11.92% to 505.00, Mohawk Industries Inc (NYSE:MHK) which was up 5.82% to settle at 169.00 and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) which gained 4.77% to close at 71.83.
The worst performers were Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ:NWL) which was down 7.81% to 24.02 in late trade, DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) which lost 7.23% to settle at 105.14 and Digital Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:DLR) which was down 3.74% to 139.41 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were China Liberal Education Holdings (NASDAQ:CLEU) which rose 72.72% to 7.00, Artelo Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ARTL) which was up 67.48% to settle at 2.730 and Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHIP) which gained 45.77% to close at 2.0700.
The worst performers were Amicus Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FOLD) which was down 32.92% to 12.56 in late trade, Collplant Biotechnologies Ltd (NASDAQ:CLGN) which lost 32.41% to settle at 16.39 and Sanara Medtech Inc (NASDAQ:SMTI) which was down 23.78% to 31.250 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1546 to 1532 and 80 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1626 fell and 1509 advanced, while 85 ended unchanged.
Shares in Illumina Inc (NASDAQ:ILMN) rose to all time highs; rising 11.92% or 53.78 to 505.00. Shares in Mohawk Industries Inc (NYSE:MHK) rose to 52-week highs; rising 5.82% or 9.29 to 169.00. Shares in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) rose to 5-year highs; up 4.77% or 3.27 to 71.83. Shares in Artelo Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ARTL) rose to 52-week highs; up 67.48% or 1.100 to 2.730.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 5.36% to 20.11 a new 6-months low.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.46% or 8.45 to $1818.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.37% or 1.38 to hit $59.62 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 2.42% or 1.48 to trade at $62.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.11% to 1.2115, while USD/JPY rose 0.24% to 104.97.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 90.477.
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The dollar edged higher in early European trading Friday, but still heading for its first weekly loss in three as doubts emerge about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
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 90.487, but still on track to fall 0.6% this week.
USD/JPY was up 0.2% at 104.88, EUR/USD dropped 0.1% to 1.2125, while the risk-sensitive AUD/USD rose 0.1% to 0.7746.
The weekly initial jobless claims data came in weaker-than-expected on Thursday, adding to last week’s nonfarm payrolls number that suggested that the recovery in the jobs market in the U.S. would be a prolonged affair.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted as much on Wednesday, when he stated that the central bank would have to remain patient with its accommodative monetary policy stance.
This has all created concerns that the dollar’s previous rally had priced in too fast a pace of rebound for the U.S. economy. Analysts at ING said in a research note:
“Any shift in the policy stance (to a hawkish, less accommodative side) is not imminent, U.S. front-end rates are to remain anchored, the U.S. curve is set to steepen further and real rates are to remain deeply negative.”
Elsewhere, GBP/USD dropped 0.2% to 1.3786, after the release of data showing Britain’s economy shrank 9.9% in 2020. This was the biggest annual fall in output since modern records began as the coronavirus ravaged its services-dominated economy.
That said, Britain’s gross domestic product grew 1.0% in the final quarter of last year, double the 0.5% growth widely expected.
This release makes it unlikely that Britain will fall into recession, as although the economy is set to shrink sharply in early 2021 due to the effects of the current lockdown, it is expected to rebound in the second quarter as the ongoing vaccination program prompts a return to something like normalcy.
Additionally, USD/RUB rose 0.4% to 73.9209, with the Bank of Russia widely expected to hold its key rate unchanged at 4.25% later Friday.
That said, the International Monetary Fund said in a report this week that Russia should cut interest rates by as much as 50 basis points in the coming months to prevent inflation falling below the central bank’s 4% target later in the year.
See also:
- Dollar Up, Inflation Remains on Investors’ Minds (Wednesday)
Gold clinched a weekly gain on Friday after two weeks in the red.
But two straight negative sessions before the end of the week also clouded the near-term outlook for the yellow metal.
Gold has struggled to put in a meaningful recovery since tumbling to 10-week lows beneath $1,785 an ounce last week. It was one of the few that really didn’t get much of a pop from this week’s cheap-money driven commodities rally that lifted almost everything from oil to soybean and even hog futures.
Coinciding with gold’s drop on the day since Thursday was the rebound in the Dollar Index that appeared to blunt its rival’s advance.
The dollar found some support after having dipped beneath 90.3 on Wednesday. A break below 90 on the index would have likely powered gold into the high $1,800 levels. Craig Erlam, analyst at online brokerage OANDA, said referring to Friday’s peak of 90.7:
“Instead we’re seeing a rebound, with the dollar index above 90.5. A move above 91 would be a psychologically significant move, with it having been the neckline of the inverse head and shoulders and coming after it rotated off key fib levels.”
Erlam cited possible tests at under $1,800 for gold if that were to occur.
At Friday’s settlement, gold for April delivery on Comex was down $3.60, or 0.2%, at $1,823.20.
For the week, it rose about $10, or 0.6%. In two weeks prior, April gold lost a cumulative 2.35%.
Platinum, meanwhile, gained for a second day in a row after a run-up to six-year highs the previous day.
Benchmark platinum futures for April delivery on New York’s Comex settled up $12, or almost 1%, at $1,259 an ounce. On Thursday, it hit a 2015 high of $1,281.10, refocusing traders’ attention on the autocatalyst metal as one that should be watched in the precious metals space.
See also:
Crude prices clinched a second straight week of gains on Friday as money continued to slosh into commodity markets, lifting prices of almost everything, from oil to copper and soybeans – even hog futures.
Since February began, price screens for Nymex, Comex, and CBOT – the exchanges for energy, metals, and agriculture – have been flashing green in unison almost every day, like pinball machines on a winning streak.
While each market is driven by its own fundamentals, the one common thing buoying them all, like the proverbial tide that lifts all boats, is the flow of cheap, easy funds looking for sexy returns as U.S. rate hikes look doomed for now and the Federal Reserve keeps printing money to stimulate recovery from the Covid-19. President Joe Biden also has a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan seeking Congressional approval.
Ed Moya, a senior market strategist at OANDA in New York, said, referring to Monday’s President’s Day holiday in the United States:
“Economic scarring will warrant easy money for a lot longer. Crude prices continue to rally as optimism overflows. Given the strength heading into a long weekend, it seems energy traders are hesitant on scaling back.”
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude was up 4.6% for the week, settling at $59.47 per barrel. It earlier hit a session peak of $59.81, its highest since January 2020. Last week, WTI rose nearly 9%.
London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, gained 5.2% on the week, settling at $62.43. Brent hit a 13-month high of $62.83 earlier on Friday. Last week, it rose 6%.
Oil’s marathon rally over the past two months has been sparked and sustained by a combination of factors. It began with the November breakthrough in vaccines for the Covid-19, followed up by OPEC leader Saudi Arabia’s announcement of deeper production cuts in January; commodity-index linked buying of oil, sizable weekly drops in U.S. crude stockpiles and hopes for economic stimulus from the Biden administration.
Many analysts, as well as industry executives from Vitol and Gunvor, had expressed caution over the rally.
Technical chartists repeatedly referred to the breach of the Relative Strength Index metric for WTI, which was at its most overbought level since the second Iraq war in 2003.
Mike Muller, the Asian head for Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, said at the weekend that the market was “getting ahead of itself in terms of a post-vaccine euphoria.”
Torbjorn Tornqvist, chief executive at Gunvor, another large independent oil trader, expressed concern that crude prices sustained at beyond $60 a barrel might trigger an avalanche of shuttered supply that would ultimately suppress the market.
Others noted that while U.S. crude stockpiles had fallen sharply over the past four weeks, spurring the oil rally, much of that has turned up as gasoline inventories lacking immediate consumption as the pandemic continued to limit driving and mobility.
But some analysts, including Phil Flynn at Chicago’s Price Futures Group, expect the rally to continue:
“This has been a story of OPEC cuts balancing the market and the sense of a new oil supercycle as (industry) investment is being shut down due to a global green energy push.”
See also:
- Oil Down, Snapping 8-Day Rally (Thursday)
Natural Gas (Hellenic Shipping News)
Last week’s draw from US working natural gas in storage proved strong enough to reduce the year-on-year surplus to a deficit while the possibility for the largest weekly draw ever is on the horizon.
Storage inventories declined 171 Bcf to 2.518 Tcf for the week-ended Feb. 5, the US Energy Information Administration reported Feb. 11.
The withdrawal was a bit below the 175 Bcf draw expected by an S&P Global Platts’ survey of analysts, but above the five-year average withdrawal of 125 Bcf, according to EIA data.
Storage volumes now stand 9 Bcf, or 0.4%, below the year-ago level of 2.527 Tcf and 152 Bcf, or 6.4%, above the five-year average of 2.366 Tcf.
The pull was less than the 192 Bcf dip reported the week prior as demand was down 2.2 Bcf/d, with residential and commercial declines accounting for the bulk of the declines, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Gas-fired generation dropped 800 MMcf/d as a rally in spot prices led to gas losing market share to coal generation.
The NYMEX Henry Hub March contract dipped 5 cents to $2.85/MMBtu in trading following the release of the weekly storage report. The upcoming summer strip, April through October, fell 5 cents to average $2.92/MMBtu, up about 3 cents from the week prior.
Still, gas prices rose across the board this week. Strong cash market gains from robust demand and production freeze-offs have helped to elevate market forwards. Henry Hub cash prices spiked to more than $5 in Feb. 11 trading while regional markers in the Midcontinent, Rockies, and Texas sailed past $10.
The upcoming two storage reports should erase the surplus to the five-year average for the first time since 2019 – placing end-of-March inventories on course to potentially come in below 1.5 Tcf.
Platts Analytics’ supply and demand model currently forecasts a 265 Bcf withdrawal for the week ending Feb. 12, which would prove more than 100 Bcf above the five-year average draw.
Colder-than-normal weather has increased week-on-week demand by 12.6 Bcf/d relative to the prior week. The residential-commercial sector paced the demand growth – averaging 9.8 Bcf/d above the prior week while gas-fired generation rose 1.6 Bcf/d as wind generation fell and loads increased. In addition, widespread freeze-offs from severe cold and wind have taken 1.5 to 2 Bcf/d of production offline currently in the Midwest and Texas.
With the worst of the cold weather slated to hit the Midwest and Texas this weekend and early next week, further price spikes are likely, which could force demand-side curtailments to balance on the likelihood of additional production freeze-offs. A very early forecast for the week ending Feb. 19 points to a 365 Bcf withdrawal.
The largest weekly storage drop on record stands at 359 Bcf during the week ended Jan. 5, 2018. During that week, a “bomb cyclone” blasted its way across the US, prompting freeze-offs and pipeline-related outages in Appalachia, Permian, Anadarko, and the Bakken, resulting in a 3 Bcf/d drop in production.
Source: Platts
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