Written by Investing.com Staff, Investing.com
U.S. stocks lower at close of trade; Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.86%
U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Oil & Gas, Basic Materials and Consumer Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.86%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.75%, and the NASDAQ Composite index lost 0.80%.
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The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), which rose 0.98% or 1.37 points to trade at 140.53 at the close. Meanwhile, The Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) added 0.52% or 0.81 points to end at 156.39 and Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) was up 0.51% or 1.27 points to 247.90 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Dow Inc (NYSE:DOW), which fell 3.09% or 1.91 points to trade at 60.00 at the close. Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) declined 2.65% or 2.68 points to end at 98.62 and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) was down 2.64% or 4.87 points to 179.28.
The top performers on the S&P 500 were Cintas Corporation (NASDAQ:CTAS) which rose 4.65% to 386.31, Teleflex Incorporated (NYSE:TFX) which was up 3.76% to settle at 390.35 and State Street Corp (NYSE:STT) which gained 2.89% to close at 84.34.
The worst performers were Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH) which was down 5.36% to 23.14 in late trade, LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE:LYB) which lost 4.80% to settle at 96.15 and Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) which was down 4.77% to 25.93 at the close.
The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Red Cat Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:RCAT) which rose 41.35% to 7.110, China SXT Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:SXTC) which was up 39.33% to settle at 2.0900 and GX Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:GXGX) which gained 26.93% to close at 10.18.
The worst performers were Bit Brother Ltd (NASDAQ:BTB) which was down 48.00% to 1.0400 in late trade, FibroGen Inc (NASDAQ:FGEN) which lost 42.27% to settle at 14.34 and American Outdoor Brands Inc (NASDAQ:AOUT) which was down 21.93% to 28.05 at the close.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the New York Stock Exchange by 2266 to 907 and 109 ended unchanged; on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, 2360 fell and 1132 advanced, while 134 ended unchanged.
Shares in Red Cat Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:RCAT) rose to all time highs; up 41.35% or 2.080 to 7.110. Shares in Bit Brother Ltd (NASDAQ:BTB) fell to all time lows; losing 48.00% or 0.9600 to 1.0400. Shares in FibroGen Inc (NASDAQ:FGEN) fell to all time lows; falling 42.27% or 10.50 to 14.34.
The CBOE Volatility Index, which measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 options, was up 8.47% to 18.45.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.97% or 17.70 to $1811.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.24% or 0.17 to hit $71.48 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.34% or 0.25 to trade at $73.22 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.05% to 1.1806, while USD/JPY rose 0.17% to 110.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 92.710.
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U.S. Futures Edge Higher; Retail Sales and Michigan Sentiment in Focus
The dollar was largely flat in Europe early Friday, maintaining the week’s gains on a safe haven bid amid rising Covid-19 cases worldwide. High U.S. inflation is also lifting expectations of an early reduction in the Federal Reserve’s $120 billion in monthly bond purchases
At 2:55 AM ET (0755 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded flat at 92.620, edging towards gains of around 0.5% for the week which, if sustained, would mark its biggest weekly percentage gain in a month.
EUR/USD was marginally lower at 1.1808, GBP/USD slipped slightly to 1.3822, while the risk-sensitive AUD/USD rose 0.1% to 0.7435, but is down 0.7% over the week.
USD/JPY rose 0.1% to 109.98 after the Bank of Japan kept its interest rates unchanged at a policy meeting, while cutting its forecast for the current fiscal year’s growth to 3.8% from April’s 4.0% forecast.
Rising Covid-19 cases, mainly in southeast Asia, but also in Europe and the U.S., have turned many traders risk averse, to the benefit of the dollar.
In Australia, Melbourne has joined Sydney in lockdown, meaning around 40% of the country’s population are suffering from restrictions; Indonesia is now fighting a “worst-case scenario” epidemic, according to a senior minister; South Korea, previously a Covid success story, has been suffering from a new wave of persistent infections; while Japan has declared a state of emergency around Tokyo, meaning the upcoming Olympics will take place without spectators. Los Angeles county meanwhile has reinstated its mask mandate for indoor environments.
At the same time, although Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has tried to play down expectations of an early tightening move by the central bank, strong inflation numbers and a shift in interest rate expectations after the Fed flagged sooner-than-expected hikes in 2023 have put a floor under the greenback.
“With the Fed expected to start the QE tapering later this year and our economists’ view that the hiking cycle with start in 2H22 (with two rate hikes), the dollar downside vs the low yielding G10 FX (where central banks should remain cautious both this year and next) should be rather limited,” said analysts at ING, in a note.
Elsewhere, NZD/USD rose 0.5% to 0.7014 after New Zealand’s consumer price index for the second quarter grew 3.3% year-on-year and 1.3% quarter-on-quarter, a decade high.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is now widely expected to hike interest rates in August, earlier than expected.
Elsewhere, the South African rand rebounded 0.6% to 14.4697 to the dollar, amid signs that the wave of violence that has racked the country in recent days may be subsiding.
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Gold was down on Friday morning in Asia but was headed for a fourth consecutive weekly gain. The yellow metal was boosted by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s insistence that any inflation will be transitory and that the central bank would continue to support the economy.
Gold futures inched down 0.05% to $1,828.10 by 12:20 AM ET (4:20 AM GMT) but gained 1.2% so far this week. The dollar, which usually moves inversely to gold, inched down on Friday.
Powell’s comments were given during his second day of testimony before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Thursday, where he repeated his pledge of “powerful support” for the U.S. economic recovery from COVID-19.
However, investors widely expect that the Fed will begin asset tapering by the end of 2022. Some even predicted an interest rate hike as early as 2022 but acknowledged that recent COVID-19 outbreaks involving the Delta variant remain the biggest economic risk.
In Asia, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) left its yield curve control (YCC) target unchanged at -0.1% for short-term interest rates and 0% for 10-year bond yields as it concluded a two-day meeting earlier in the day.
Investors also continued to digest the second-quarter GDP figure from China, a leading consumer of gold. As higher raw material costs and new COVID-19 outbreaks led to slower growth, expectations are growing that policymakers may have to do more to support the economic recovery.
Meanwhile, Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) Corp said on Thursday its second-quarter gold production fell 5.4% from the previous quarter. Planned maintenance shutdowns at Nevada Gold Mine in the U.S. and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic contributed to the decline.
In other precious metals, silver was flat and palladium inched up 0.1%, while platinum inched down 0.1%.
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Oil prices had their worst week in months even after crude prices edged higher Friday, as the market absorbed news that the United Arab Emirates had a deal with OPEC+ that at least one hedge fund said could open “a can of worms” on the cartel’s output.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude, the benchmark for U.S. oil, settled up 35 cents, or 0.5%, at $72 per barrel. For the week though, WTI lost $2.56, or 3.4%. It was the largest weekly loss for U.S. crude since the week ended April 2.
London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for oil, rose 12 cents, or 0.2%, to finish the session at $75.55. For the week, Brent lost $1.96, or 2.6%, for its sharpest weekly decline since the week to May 14.
OPEC+ – which groups the 13 member Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with 10 other oil producers led by Russia – had initially failed to agree on August production levels after the UAE sought a higher baseline for measuring its output cuts.
News reports from the past couple of days, however, suggested that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have reached a compromise, paving the way for OPEC+ producers to end an uncertainty that had bogged down the market and prices for weeks.
“All signs indicate that OPEC+ is heading for a potential compromise agreement that will allow the UAE to secure a baseline adjustment,” RBC Capital analysts said in a note. “Other producers will undoubtedly seek similar treatment and potentially prolong the deliberations heading into the August ministerial meeting.”
John Kilduff, founding partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital, concurred with that view.
“This certainly opens a can of worms where OPEC production is concerned,” said Kilduff. “The Iraqis were already talking about wanting their baseline for production increased too.”
“Unless the Saudis can point at the new Covid outbreaks from the Delta variant and say ‘hey, we should all keep our production down in order not to lose what we have gained’, I think oil prices will remain under pressure.”
On the Covid front, vaccination rates are down and cases are on the rise, exacerbated by the more transmissible Delta variant — and an expert said earlier this week that the key to winning the race against the spread is getting more Americans vaccinated.
“We’re losing time here. The Delta variant is spreading, people are dying, we can’t actually just wait for things to get more rational,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Wednesday.
Vaccines have been available to most Americans for months, but still only 48.2% of the country is fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and the rate of new vaccinations is on the decline.
Meanwhile, case rates have been going up dramatically. In 47 states, the rate of new cases in the past week are at least 10% higher than the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Of those, 35 have seen increases of over 50%.
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Natural Gas (Hellenic Shipping News)
US working natural gas volumes in underground storage increase 55 Bcf: EIA
US natural gas inventories rose nearly in line with the five-year average for the week ended July 9, doing little to erase the storage deficit, as Henry Hub futures fell slightly.
Storage inventories increased 55 Bcf to 2.629 Tcf for the week ended July 9, the US Energy Information Administration reported July 15.
The build was more than the 46 Bcf injection an S&P Global Platts survey of analysts expected and just above the five-year average build of 54 Bcf, according to EIA data.
Storage volumes now stand 543 Bcf, or 17.1%, below the year-ago level of 3.172 Tcf, and 189 Bcf, or 6.7%, below the five-year average of 2.818 Tcf.
The NYMEX Henry Hub August contract dipped 4 cents to $3.62/MMBtu July 15, nearly $2/MMBtu above where the prompt month was valued last year at this time as fundamentals have demonstrated significant change. US dry production is down 700 MMcf/d so far this year, while total demand rose 3.9 Bcf/d year to date, according to Platts Analytics. LNG exports have fueled 3.4 Bcf/d of the rise in demand.
Platts Analytics’ supply-and-demand model currently forecasts a 38 Bcf injection for the week ending July 16, which would measure only 2 Bcf more than the five-year average, doing little to erase the deficit as the injection season nears the halfway point.
Midwest injections have increased by 2.5 Bcf while East injections fell by a similar amount for the week ending July 16. The largest change has come from the Pacific region, where pipeline sample data indicate a possible flip to a net withdrawal, likely the result of sustained, hotter-than-normal weather affecting the West Coast.
The current Platts Analytics end-of-season forecast has stocks peaking at 3.5 Tcf, 400 Bcf below last year’s storage peak.
In response to below-normal volumes in storage, shippers, local distribution companies, and end-users will likely boost injection activity over the next few months to build up adequate supply by the time the heating season arrives in early November. But this might prove difficult in the short term as the US enters the peak demand period of the summer.
Source: Platts
See also:
- Natural-gas prices fall as EIA reports a weekly rise of 55 billion cubic feet in U.S. supplies (MarketWatch Thursday)
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India stocks lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 0.01%
India stocks lower at close of trade; Nifty 50 down 0.01%
