Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.52%
U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.52%, while the S&P 500 index added 0.88%, and the NASDAQ Composite index added 1.47%.
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 Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM), which rose 2.88% or 6.64 points to trade at 237.48 at the close. Meanwhile, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) added 2.04% or 5.02 points to end at 250.73 and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was up 2.01% or 1.13 points to 57.37 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), which fell 0.63% or 1.02 points to trade at 159.98 at the close. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) declined 0.55% or 2.25 points to end at 405.71 and Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW) was down 0.35% or 0.25 points to 70.36.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) which rose 4.96% to 286.06, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) which was up 4.61% to settle at 599.23 and IPG Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ:IPGP) which gained 3.99% to close at 209.00.
The worst performers were Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) which was down 4.14% to 17.13 in late trade, Alliance Data Systems Corp (NYSE:ADS) which lost 3.90% to settle at 118.03 and Mosaic Co (NYSE:MOS) which was down 3.61% to 36.04 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were American Superconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:AMSC) which rose 37.38% to 17.53, Windtree Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:WINT) which was up 35.86% to settle at 2.690 and Fuel Tech Inc (NASDAQ:FTEK) which gained 35.81% to close at 2.9200.
The worst performers were US Well Services Inc (NASDAQ:USWS) which was down 25.18% to 1.040 in late trade, Harpoon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:HARP) which lost 24.26% to settle at 15.86 and EuroDry Ltd (NASDAQ:EDRY) which was down 17.06% to 27.28 at the close.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1978 to 1183 and 136 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 1954 rose and 1405 declined, while 124 ended unchanged.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 8.98% to 16.42 a new 1-month low.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.10% or 20.65 to $1893.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.83% or 0.57 to hit $69.38 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.43% or 0.31 to trade at $71.62 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.37% to 1.2169, while USD/JPY fell 0.68% to 109.53.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.42% at 90.118.
The dollar climbed in early European trade Friday, reaching multi-week highs after a spate of strong economic data ahead of the monthly payrolls release raised the possibility of early Federal Reserve tightening.
At 2:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, was up 0.1% at 90.605, reaching a new three-week high.
EUR/USD traded 0.1% lower at 1.2113, also a three-week low, while USD/JPY edged lower to 110.26. GBP/USD fell 0.1% to 1.4095, sharply below the three-year high of 1.4250 reached Tuesday, and the risk-sensitive AUD/USD was down 0.1% at 0.7653, after falling to its lowest since mid-April overnight.
The dollar has been under pressure for much of 2021 as traders have reacted to ultra-easy Fed policies, and the suggestions that these would stay in place for some time. However, this narrative is starting to change as the U.S. economic rebound gains in strength, throwing up the possibility of it driving policy tightening.
Thursday saw the release of some strong economic numbers – ADP private payrolls increased by 978,000 in May, way above forecasts of 650,000; weekly initial jobless claims fell below 400,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic; and the Institute for Supply Management’s services index rose to 64 last month, the highest on record, from 62.7 in April.
Even with these numbers detailing the obvious improvement in the U.S. economy, New York Fed President John Williams (NYSE:WMB) still said Thursday that now is not the time for the central bank to adjust its bond-buying program, although he added that it makes sense for the policy makers to be talking through options for the future.
The next focus of the market will come later in the day when U.S. nonfarm payrolls data is published at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT).
“The U.S. jobs report will provide an essential temperature check, not only on the health of the U.S. economy but also on supply-led inflationary pressures,” said analysts at investment management firm Brooks Macdonald.
The expectation, according to Investing.com, is for about 650,000 jobs to have been added in May, although that number may well have started climbing after Thursday’s releases.
That said, traders are wary of getting too confident about a strong number after April’s figure, which came in at 266,000 versus 978,000 expected.
“Of course, while the focus will be on May’s numbers, Friday’s data release also gives the opportunity to revise that April figure,” Brooks Macdonald added.
Elsewhere, USD/TRY rose 0.2% to 8.7102, with the lira weakening once more after Thursday’s surprise drop in inflation likely increased the pressure on Governor Sahap Kavcioglu to bow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vocal desire for lower interest rates.
Consumer prices increased an annual 16.6% in May, down from 17.1% the previous month, and below the expected acceleration to 17.3%.
See also:
‘What inflation?’
The gold bull could have been asking that for the umpteenth time as the yellow metal couldn’t muster a second straight weekly close above $1,900 on Friday, despite incessant noise across markets about price pressures.
A mixed U.S. jobs picture did help activate gold’s other quality – safe-haven – helping it crawl out of the near mid-$1,800 levels it tumbled to on Thursday.
Yet, both futures and the spot price of bullion stopped just shy of attempting to return to the $1,900 berth that would have bolstered the confidence of gold longs going into the new week.
The front-month gold futures contract on New York’s Comex settled at $1,892 per ounce, up $18.70, or 1%. Friday’s session peak was $1,898.90. For the week though, the front-month contract fell 0.7%.
The previous weekly close on May 28 was the first weekly gold settlement above $1,900 since November.
The spot price of gold, reflective of real-time trades in bullion, was at $1,891.05 by 2:33 PM ET (18:33 GMT), after an intraday peak at $1,896.19
Gold tumbled from its $1,900 perch on Thursday after data showing weekly U.S. employment claims at the lowest since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March 2020. The suggestion of a marked improvement in the labor market sent gold’s rivals U.S. bond yields and the dollar surging instead as Comex futures tumbled to a Thursday low $1,866.85 while spot gold touched a nadir of $1,865.49.
But less than 24 hours later, the U.S. jobs picture was looking entirely different.
The Labor Department’s non-farm payrolls for all of May showed that the United States added 559,000 new jobs in May and the unemployment rate fell to 5.8%. But economists expressed disappointment with the total jobs growth for last month that came in some 115,00 less than forecasts, showing recovery still had a long way to go.
Immediately, talking heads at research houses began espousing theories that the Federal Reserve will be nowhere near to raising interest rates or pulling back the $120 billion of bonds and other asset purchases it has been carrying out monthly for the past one year to support the economy.
Notwithstanding that, the chatter about inflation – reaching almost gibberish at this point, given the Fed’s indifference to the whole thing – did bunk for gold bulls’ aims of returning to $1,900.
Some analysts, however, remained upbeat on gold.
“The move in real yields crushed gold prices for most of the week. But the May nonfarm payroll report showed markets that the April report was not a fluke,” said Ed Moya, analyst at online trading platform OANDA.
Moya said any Fed tightening of rates or so-called tapering of asset purchases will likely wait until the end of annual summer Fed convention at Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“Much of the bearish positioning before the nonfarm miss should be undone as the Fed will be seen nowhere ready to talk about tapering,” he said, adding that this augured well for gold.
See also:
Crude oil prices edged higher Friday, continuing the recent rally amid growing expectations of an improving fuel demand outlook, particularly by the U.S., the world’s largest consumer.
By 9:45 AM ET (1345 GMT), U.S. crude was up 1.2% at $69.60 a barrel, after settling the previous session at its highest level since October 2018. Brent was up 0.9% at $72.05, climbing above $72 for the first time since April 2019.
For the week, Brent is on track for a gain of 3.4% and U.S. crude is heading for a 5% rise. It is the second week of gains for both contracts.
U.S. Gasoline RBOB Futures were up 0.8% at $2.2195 a gallon.
Helping the tone Friday was the latest U.S. nonfarm payrolls release, which showed that job growth accelerated in May, signaling firms are making some progress filling a record number of openings as the economy powers up.
Payrolls increased by 559,000 last month after a revised 278,000 gain in April, according to a Labor Department report Friday.
While this figure was a touch below the 650,000 expected, it still indicates robust growth while not exerting excessive pressure on the Federal Reserve to rein in its ultra-easy monetary policies.
U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than expected on Thursday in another bullish sign for the market, with data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing a draw of just over 5 million barrels last week, bigger than the expected 2.4-million-barrel draw.
Earlier this week, both the OPEC+, a group consisting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other top producers, including Russia, and the International Energy Agency have offered up constructive outlooks for the second half of the year as the global economy recovers from the pandemic.
Another factor buoying the market was a slowdown in talks between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, ruling out an immediate increase in supply from the Persian Gulf state.
Later Friday, traders will focus on the latest weekly update from Baker Hughes of the number of oil rigs, while the CFTC will release its weekly commitments of traders report.
Next week sees a number of important data releases, including OPEC’s monthly market report on Thursday and the IEA’s monthly oil market report.
See also:
Natural Gas (Hellenic Shipping News)
U.S. natural gas storage capacity has remained flat over the past eight years
Underground natural gas working storage capacity in the Lower 48 states has remained relatively flat since 2012. We measure natural gas working storage capacity in two ways: design capacity and demonstrated peak capacity. Both measures of capacity were relatively unchanged in 2020 compared with 2019: design capacity increased 0.1% and demonstrated peak capacity decreased 0.2%. The largest regional year-over-year change was a decrease in demonstrated peak capacity in the Pacific region.
We calculated design capacity in our latest estimate as the total working natural gas capacity for all active facilities in the Lower 48 states as of November 2020. Design capacity is an engineering estimate based on the physical characteristics of the reservoir, installed equipment, and operating procedures at the site, which often must be certified by federal or state regulators. Design capacity increased by 4 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in 2020.
Increases in design capacity during 2020 occurred primarily in the South Central region, where working natural gas design capacity increased by 5 Bcf.
We calculate demonstrated peak capacity as the total of the highest storage levels reached by each storage facility during any month during the most recent five-year period (December 2015 – November 2020). Demonstrated peak capacity reflects how storage facilities were actually used rather than how they were designed.
Overall, demonstrated peak capacity in 2020 declined by 8 Bcf compared with 2019, despite reported increases in five of the six regions in the Lower 48 states.
Demonstrated peak capacity declined by 34 Bcf in the Pacific region because previous peak levels – predating the 2015 leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in California – are no longer included in the five-year range. The Aliso Canyon field has operated at reduced levels since coming back online following the leak. Despite the decline in demonstrated peak capacity for the region, natural gas storage facilities in the Pacific region had increased use during 2020 compared with 2019.
Source: EIA
See also:
.
