Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.48%
U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Basic Materials, Telecoms and Healthcare sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.48% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.36%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.10%.
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 Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 2.27% or 1.17 points to trade at 52.81 at the close. Meanwhile, Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) added 1.67% or 5.39 points to end at 328.13 and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) was up 1.13% or 3.82 points to 342.37 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), which fell 1.19% or 2.99 points to trade at 248.12 at the close. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) declined 0.78% or 0.42 points to end at 53.30 and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) was down 0.46% or 0.48 points to 102.94.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were PPG Industries Inc (NYSE:PPG) which rose 8.73% to 167.41, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) which was up 3.86% to settle at 163.62 and Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) which gained 3.76% to close at 43.83.
The worst performers were State Street Corp (NYSE:STT) which was down 7.00% to 80.45 in late trade, Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) which lost 4.08% to settle at 46.05 and EOG Resources Inc (NYSE:EOG) which was down 3.28% to 70.44 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were General Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:GFN) which rose 55.55% to 18.93, MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:MTSL) which was up 34.32% to settle at 3.855 and Tian Ruixiang Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:TIRX) which gained 30.15% to close at 16.10.
The worst performers were Sequential Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:SQBG) which was down 36.69% to 17.5050 in late trade, Wilhelmina (NASDAQ:WHLM) which lost 30.56% to settle at 7.50 and NXT-ID Inc (NASDAQ:NXTD) which was down 25.04% to 0.7796 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1674 to 1377 and 99 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1755 fell and 1423 advanced, while 111 ended unchanged.
Shares in PPG Industries Inc (NYSE:PPG) rose to all time highs; rising 8.73% or 13.45 to 167.41. Shares in Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALXN) rose to 5-year highs; up 3.86% or 6.08 to 163.62. Shares in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 3.76% or 1.59 to 43.83. Shares in Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) rose to 52-week highs; up 2.27% or 1.17 to 52.81. Shares in Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) rose to all time highs; rising 1.67% or 5.39 to 328.13. Shares in General Finance Corporation (NASDAQ:GFN) rose to all time highs; gaining 55.55% or 6.76 to 18.93. Shares in MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd (NASDAQ:MTSL) rose to 3-years highs; rising 34.32% or 0.985 to 3.855.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 1.93% to 16.25 a new 52-week low.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.53% or 9.40 to $1776.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.54% or 0.34 to hit $63.12 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.22 to trade at $66.72 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.14% to 1.1982, while USD/JPY rose 0.05% to 108.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 91.540.
S&P 500, Dow Close at Record to End Bullish Week of Earnings on High
Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.07%
Asian Shares Mixed, Investors Assess Economic Data From the U.S. and China
The dollar looks set to post a second-straight weekly decline Friday, shrugging off a wave positive data earlier this week, and will continue to do so as most of the good news has already been priced in, Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) said.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell by 0.01% to 91.55.
Data earlier this week including retail sales and initial jobless claims surprised to the upside, but that drew little support to the dollar. The humdrum reaction suggests “the positive effect of Biden’s economic stimulus package and good vaccination progress in the US is largely priced in,” Commerzbank said. “Strong U.S. data can no longer support the U.S. dollar.”
With most of the strong data and positive vaccine news now priced in, the greenback will struggle to make gains in the short-term.
The immediate horizon, meanwhile, doesn’t offer up much reason for optimism for dollar bulls. A helping hand from the the Federal Reserve is still aways off as Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank was “highly unlikely” to raise rates before 2022.
“We’ve said we expect to keep rates where they are until meet three-part test,” Powell said Wednesday at a virtual event organized by the Economic Club of Washington. The three part test includes maximum employment, inflation reaching 2%, and on track to run moderately above 2% for some time.
Biden’s new infrastructure plan, aimed at long-term economic momentum, however, could provide the ammo needed for the dollar to rediscover its form, but progress on the legislative measure is unlikely until the summer.
“The infrastructure plan is contentious, and if it were to pass Congress, would only become more concrete in the summer, [ … ] for now, the plans are too abstract to support the dollar on a sustainable basis,” Commerzbank added.
See also:
Gold had its best week since December, with U.S. inflation risks and a reintroduction of political risk hedging helping set the yellow metal on a potential return to $1,800 pricing.
Benchmark gold futures on New York’s Comex settled up $13.40, or 0.8%, at $1,780.20 an ounce. It earlier scaled a seven-week high of $1,784.55, making its first return to $1,780 pricing since Feb. 26.
The spot price of gold wasn’t far from futures, trading up $13.79, or 0.8%, at $1,777.70 by 3:12 PM ET (19:12 GMT), after a peak at $1,783.83. Moves in spot gold are integral to fund managers, who sometimes rely more on it than futures for direction.
Gold’s resurgence this week came as U.S. bond yields plunged amid a hike in consumer prices that reasserted the yellow metal’s diminished role as a hedge against inflation.
Sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States on Thursday also brought gold back – in the eyes of some, at least – as a protection against political risk.
U.S. bond yields, measured by the 10-year Treasury note, hovered at 1.58% on Friday, markedly lower from a 14-month high of 1.77% on March 30.
“It would appear that the bond market is finally buying into the Fed’s low-for longer verse which would be supportive of non-yielding gold,” said Sophie Griffiths, research head for the U.K. and EMEA at online broker OANDA.
Gold has been throttled in recent months by bond yields and the dollar that often surged on the argument that U.S. economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic could exceed expectations, as the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at near zero.
Griffiths noted that geopolitics were also “back with a bang” this week amid the heightening showdown between world powers America and Russia, driving investors toward safe havens such as gold.
Adding to gold’s strength was a weaker dollar, which typically boosted the yellow metal. The Dollar Index, which pits the greenback against the euro and five other major currencies, weakened on Friday to 91.56 versus Thursday’s settlement of 91.62.
Gold had a scorching run in mid-2020 when it rose from March lows of under $1,500 to reach record highs of nearly $2,100 by August, responding to inflationary concerns sparked by the first U.S. fiscal relief of $3 trillion approved for the coronavirus pandemic.
Breakthroughs in vaccine development since November, along with optimism of economic recovery, however, forced gold to close 2020 trading at just below $1,900.
This year, the rut worsened as gold fell first to $1,800 levels in January, then collapsed to below $1,660 at one point in March.
Such weakness in gold is remarkable if considered from the perspective of the Covid-19 stimulus of $1.9 trillion passed by Congress in March, and the Biden administration’s plans for an additional infrastructure spending of $2.2 trillion.
Typically, stimulus measures lead to dollar debasement and inflation that sends gold rallying as an inflation hedge. But logic-suspending selloffs instead took place in gold over the past six months, with some Wall Street banks lending inane commentary to support these.
See also:
Oil prices settled up 6% on the week after an unexpectedly large U.S. crude drawdown, but volatility could return to the market as worries about the impact of Covid-19 variants counter signs of improving fuel demand.
Bullish U.S. economic data – including a spike in retail sales and housing starts and tumble in jobless claims – are giving investors in oil and other risk assets optimism of a better-than-expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
But that confidence is also being offset by a surge in hospital visits by teens and young adults, many carrying the B.1.1.7, the coronavirus variant first identified in the U.K. that public health officials say is now the most common strain circulating in the U.S. The variant is highly contagious, thought to be about 60% more transmissible than the original strain of the virus.
The matter was concerning enough for the White House to announce on Friday that it was setting aside $1.7 billion to monitor, track and defeat emerging Covid-19 variants threatening pockets of the country.
U.S. authorities also paused this week the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine after reports of blood clots in recipients. Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), meanwhile, said it will fall short of its vaccine delivery targets for the U.K. and Canada.
Despite their advance on the week, crude prices could go back to reflecting “the increasing risks of new variants” and other issues around the pandemic, said Ed Moya, head of U.S. research at online broker OANDA.
That could result in a return of volatility, said some market participants.
“We’re still not out of the woods yet for record highs in new infections,” said John Kilduff, founding partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital. “Any surge in Covid numbers or regress in vaccines could pressure oil prices into a new round of swings.”
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for U.S. crude, settled Friday’s trade up 33 cents, or 0.5%, at $63.16 per barrel. For the week, it rose 6.4%, its largest advance since the week ended Feb. 26.
London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, settled down 17 cents, or 0.3%, at $66.77. Brent gained 6.7% for the week, its most since the week ended Jan. 29.
Bullish supply-demand numbers for oil released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday helped WTI break away this week from being boxed-in at between $57 and $60 and Brent unshackle itself from a $61 to $63 range.
U.S. crude stockpiles dropped 5.899 million barrels for the week ended April 9, compared with analysts’ expectations for a draw of 2.889 million barrels, the EIA said.
Gasoline inventories rose 309,000 barrels, compared with expectations for a 786,000-barrel build.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, dropped 2.083 million barrels in the week against expectations for a build of 971,000 barrels, the EIA data showed.
The better supply-demand numbers coincided with a spike in traffic noted in key U.S. urban areas over the past week as many of the country’s 50 states pressed on with economic reopenings from the pandemic, helped by a dynamic federal vaccine program.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency also raised this week its forecast for 2021 global oil demand by 230,000 barrels a day to 5.7 million bpd. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, meanwhile, increased its demand forecast for this year by 100,000 bpd.
See also:
Natural Gas (Hellenic Shipping News)
US natural gas storage fields post another strong shoulder season build
Above-average injections into US gas storage fields during shoulder season suggest stocks might fill early this year, presenting a possibly bearish market landscape this summer.
Storage inventories increased 20 Bcf to 1.784 Tcf for the week ended April 2, the US Energy Information Administration reported April 8.
The build was less than the 27 Bcf injection expected by an S&P Global Platts’ survey of analysts. It was also less than the 30 Bcf addition reported during the same week last year, but above the five-year average injection of 8 Bcf, according to EIA data.
Lower weather-driven demand pushed US residential-commercial consumption down almost 2 Bcf/d for the week ended April 2, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Despite reduced space heating, power loads increased week over week as modest cooling degree days drove some demand in the Southeast.
Higher total loads interacted with stronger renewable generation, though, pushing the call on thermal generation lower. Yet, despite the smaller call on thermal generation, US gas-fired generation gained nearly 800 MMcf/d, with gas’ share of thermal generation growing by about 2% to average roughly 63.5%. Switching to supply, US production gained a modest 200 MMcf/d, while a softer call on Canadian inflows drove net imports lower by roughly 100 MMcf/d.
Storage volumes now stand 235 Bcf, or 11.6%, less than the year-ago level of 2.019 Tcf and only 24 Bcf, or 1.3%, less than the five-year average of 1.808 Tcf.
Natural gas prices saw some selling pressure with the May Henry Hub NYMEX contract falling to as low as $2.46/MMBtu on April 7. The weakness in price appears to be driven by a lack of bullish catalysts, as the market is entering a period in which loads are seasonally quite weak and demand is soft. As such, it appears NYMEX futures are largely being shaped by cash prices with Henry Hub spot prices clearing below $2.40/MMBtu on April 8.
The NYMEX Henry Hub May contract was at $2.51/MMBtu in trading following the release of the weekly storage report on April 8.
Platts Analytics’ supply and demand model currently forecasts a 64 Bcf injection for the week ending April 9, which would flip the deficit to the five-year average to a surplus.
The inventory gains were concentrated in the South Central and Midwest regions, which each accounted for a little more than a third of the total volume change week over week. Mild shoulder season weather means temperatures are rising enough to cut residential and commercial demand, but not climbing high enough to provide offsetting gains to power burn.
Source: Platts
.
include(“/home/aleta/public_html/files/ad_openx.htm”); ?>
Oil Mixed But Nears 6% Weekly Gain as Fuel Demand Optimism Grows
