Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks higher at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.44%
U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Technology, Consumer Services and Healthcare sectors led shares higher.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.44% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.75%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.81%.
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The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which rose 2.22% or 6.02 points to trade at 277.62 at the close. Meanwhile, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) added 1.96% or 2.69 points to end at 139.96 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was up 1.83% or 3.03 points to 168.99 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), which fell 4.65% or 6.83 points to trade at 140.01 at the close. Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) declined 1.29% or 3.09 points to end at 236.64 and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) was down 1.13% or 0.55 points to 48.16.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) which rose 2.87% to 81.82, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc (NYSE:HLT) which was up 2.62% to settle at 126.86 and CarMax Inc (NYSE:KMX) which gained 2.42% to close at 133.74.
The worst performers were International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) which was down 4.65% to 140.01 in late trade, Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) which lost 4.51% to settle at 8.890 and Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) which was down 2.44% to 29.23 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Sequential Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:SQBG) which rose 88.07% to 15.610, Alector Inc (NASDAQ:ALEC) which was up 56.94% to settle at 35.17 and Bridgeline Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BLIN) which gained 55.13% to close at 8.920.
The worst performers were Iterum Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ:ITRM) which was down 38.43% to 1.410 in late trade, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ARWR) which lost 25.75% to settle at 63.08 and Alterity Therapeutics Ltd (NASDAQ:ATHE) which was down 19.39% to 1.7250 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 1642 to 1526 and 131 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2195 fell and 1218 advanced, while 144 ended unchanged.
Shares in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose to all time highs; rising 2.22% or 6.02 to 277.62. Shares in Alector Inc (NASDAQ:ALEC) rose to 52-week highs; up 56.94% or 12.76 to 35.17. Shares in Bridgeline Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BLIN) rose to 52-week highs; rising 55.13% or 3.170 to 8.920.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was down 2.65% to 15.07 a new 52-week low.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.69% or 12.25 to $1789.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $75.21 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.44% or 0.33 to trade at $76.17 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.15% to 1.1865, while USD/JPY fell 0.43% to 111.02.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.39% at 92.237.
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The dollar has given back some of its recent gains in early European trade Friday, but remains near multi-month peaks against its major peers ahead of the release of the widely-watched monthly payrolls report.
At 2:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.1% lower at 92.558, having climbed to a three-month high during the previous session.
USD/JPY was up 0.1% at 111.57, just below a new 15-month high, EUR/USD edged down to 1.1846, just above a three-month low, GBP/USD rose 0.1% to 1.3771, near a fresh two-and-a-half month low, while the risk-sensitive AUD/USD was flat at 0.7469, near the lowest since December.
The dollar has been supported over the last couple of days by strong U.S. employment data, bringing into question the assumption that U.S. interest rates can stay at ultra-low levels for years.
Applications for U.S. state unemployment insurance fell last week by more than expected, according to data released Thursday, with initial jobless claims falling by 51,000 to 364,000, reaching a fresh pandemic low as the economy reopens.
This followed Wednesday’s private payrolls release, which showed U.S. companies hired 692,000 new employees in June, more than the 600,000 generally expected.
This brings into focus the official U.S. nonfarm payrolls release, due at 8:30 AM ET (1230 GMT), which is expected to show another weighty rise of 700,000 jobs in June, an improvement from the 559,000 jobs added the previous month.
However, with both the ADP and the weekly jobless claims coming in better than expected, market chat has been suggesting a higher payrolls figure. This would likely benefit the dollar given Federal Reserve policymakers have made the labor market the cardinal factor in determining monetary policy..
“The recent FOMC meeting suggests the Fed’s trigger-finger will be a little twitchier when it comes to tapering,” said analysts at ING, in a note, “but unless the NFP figure comes in close to the one million mark, financial markets will probably be set fair for a low volatility summer.”
Elsewhere, EUR/SEK rose 0.1% to 10.171 and USD/SEK climbed 0.2% to 8.5892 after Sweden’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate and asset-purchase program unchanged on Thursday, and signaled that it’s in no hurry to tighten.
“The Riksbank will be towards the back of the pack when it comes to central bank
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Gold (Thursday)
Gold was up on Friday morning in Asia, but investors avoided big bets ahead of the release of critical U.S. employment data that could sway the U.S. Federal Reserve’s recent hawkish stance on monetary policy.
Gold futures edged up 0.18% to $1,780 by 9:50 PM ET (1:50 AM GMT), after falling 0.2% so far in the past week. The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Friday towards three-month highs.
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker suggested that cutting asset purchases by $10 billion a month might be reasonable and added that he favored starting the process in 2021, according to a report.
The U.S. jobs report for June, including non-farm payrolls, will be released later in the day. Investors also continued to digest data released on Thursday that said the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing PMI was a slightly lower-than-expected 60.6 in June and a lower-than-forecast 364,000 initial jobless claims were filed throughout the past week. U.S. layoffs also fell to a 21-year low in June.
On the stimulus front, the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives approved a $715 billion surface transportation and water infrastructure bill on Thursday. The approval is a first step towards approving the bill, which Congress targets completing by September 2021.
Some investors are now placing bets that U.S. government bond yields will stay subdued or continue weakening in the second half of 2021.
Meanwhile, Bolivia’s government is looking to stabilize a 2020 fall in its economy not seen in over half a century through spending, COVID-19 vaccines and the yellow metal.
In other precious metals, silver was little changed at $26 per ounce while platinum was steady at $1,082.58, and both were down for the week. Palladium inched down 0.1% but was set for a second consecutive weekly gain.
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Crude oil prices notched a sixth-weekly win Friday despite a sluggish end to the week as OPEC+ struggled to reach consensus on plans to ease production curbs.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures rose 7 cents to $75.16 a barrel, while on London’s Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE), Brent added 0.70% to $76.37 a barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, or OPEC+, got their meeting underway Friday, to reach a breakthrough on how much to lift output. But the meeting ended without a deal after the United Arab Emirates failed to go ahead with a preliminary agreement – to reportedly raise output by 400,000 barrels per day from August to December – struck by Saudi Arabia and Germany. The meeting will reconvene on Monday.
OPEC+ was forced to delay its meeting until Friday after the United Arab Emirates blocked a plan a preliminary agreement to reportedly raise output by 400,000 barrels per day from August to December.
The squabble of how much to raise output has increased expectations for the cautious production hike.
“The OPEC+ meeting delay provides some insight on the continued fragility of oil market fundamentals. This could result in OPEC+ cautiously increasing supply, which is a positive for oil markets while demand rebounds toward pre-pandemic levels,” RBC said in a note.
On the demand side, meanwhile, the optimism over a recovery shows little sign of fading despite the threat posed by the delta variant of Covid-19 on international travel.
Earlier this week, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo, forecast demand to rise by 6 million barrels per day in 2021, the bulk of which, about 5 million barrels per day, is expected in the second half of the year.
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Natural Gas (Hellenic Shipping News)
China to use more natural gas in energy mix to 2035 – CNPC
China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) expects China to cut its coal use to 44% of energy consumption by 2030 and 8% by 2060 as the country aims to use more natural gas to achieve its climate change goals.
China, the world’s biggest coal consumer, is expected to increase the use of natural gas in its primary energy mix to 12% in 2030 from 8.7% in 2020, said Zhu Xingshan, senior director, Planning Department CNPC at a conference on Thursday.
He added that the share of natural gas in energy consumption is expected to increase “significantly” from 2030 to 2035.
China, the world’s largest energy consumer and biggest emitter of climate warming greenhouse gases, has vowed to bring its total carbon emissions to a peak before 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2060.
Natural gas is expected to be a key bridge fuel over the next two decades, CNPC has said.
The energy giant expects coal to make up 44%, petroleum at 18%, natural gas at 12% and non-fossil fuel to make up 26% of the total energy mix in 2030.
The estimates for 2060 were coal at 8%, petroleum at 6%, natural gas at 11% and non-fossil fuel at 75% of the total energy mix.
China lowered the share of coal use in its primary energy mix to 56.8% in 2020, from around 68% at the beginning of the previous decade and expects this share to fall to below 56% in 2021.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Emily Chow; Writing by Shivani Singh; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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