At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.3 per cent, after trading up as much as 0.8 per cent and down as much as 0.4 per cent. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 5.64 points, or 0.1%, at 4,637.99, falling for the eighth consecutive session.
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“Falling oil prices in the face of global growth concerns continued to weigh on the overall sentiment, short-circuiting a rebound attempt”, Briefing.com analysts said in a note to clients. Copper mining company Freeport-McMoRan also dropped over 20 percent. Under Armour was down 4.7 percent to $71.47 after Morgan Stanley cut its rating and price target on the stock.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude shed 67 cents to $32.49 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“The fact that we didn’t see kind of another washout today kind of emboldened some of investors to think that perhaps, at least on a short-term basis, maybe it was time for the market to bounce a little bit”, said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. BorgWarner lost $4.19, or 11.2 percent, to $33.21. The stock was up 1.4 percent at $8.17.
DRIVING DIVIDEND: General Motors rose 1 percent after the automaker raised its dividend and added to its stock repurchase program.
Despite last week’s sharp losses, Mr Stubbs said he remains invested in stocks in the United States and Europe where recent economic data has been mostly positive.
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U.S.-produced crude, however, is starting the new week off in the red. Worries over the future of the world’s second-largest economy have triggered big falls in stock markets around the world at the start of 2016. Exports fell in dollar terms but the decrease was smaller than November’s. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 2.9 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.1 percent. New Zealand, Singapore and Jakarta also declined. The euro was little changed at $1.0860 and the dollar rose to 118.02 yen from 117.58 yen.
