US stock indexes were at a near standstill in Friday morning trading, the latest listless move for a market that took a decidedly slow-and-steady path to record highs in recent days.
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About 55 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,553.56, down 0.2 percent.
Utilities are up 20.2 percent so far this year, versus a 5.9 percent gain for the S&P 500. However, all sectors were moving within a narrow range of losses of 0.3 percent to gains of 0.4 percent. A report showed jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week, hitting a three-month low as the labor market continues to gather momentum.
Mr. Draghi told a press conference that the ECB was ready to act if necessary, but bank officials wanted to examine more economic data, including projections due in September, before making a decision. Gold fell $7.60 to $1,323.40 an ounce, silver fell 13 cents to $19.69 an ounce and copper fell 2 cents to close at $2.24 a pound. About 1,000 workers are expected to join the strike.
“Below it all is just an ongoing trend of better economic reports”, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis. “This market rally had more to do with economic sentiment than anything”. Microsoft’s surge helped the technology sector rise 1.6 percent, much more than the rest of the market. The S&P 500 closed at a new record level and the Nasdaq composite had its highest close of the year. The advances came as S&P 500 companies showed signs of breaking a four-quarter-long decline in sales, fueling optimism that a long-awaited rebound in earnings is at hand. American Express Co. lost 1.5 per cent as its revenue was short of predictions.
Morgan Stanley (MS) joined Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America on the list of USA financial institutions topping second-quarter profit forecasts this week.
ENERGY: The price of USA crude oil rose 16 cents to $45.91 per barrel. Comments by the Bank of Japan governor ruling out “helicopter money” for the tepid economy also cast a chill. The ECB will keep its key rate at 0% and its savings deposit rate at -0.40%.
Investors will also be watching the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week for clues about when the USA central bank might next seek to raise interest rates. It lost 0.4 percent to 18,517.23.
USA shares were higher at midsession Wednesday after a clutch of upbeat earnings reports and buoyant oil prices in the face of draining fuel stockpiles.
Big losers included a number of gold and silver mining companies, which coincided with moderate weakness in precious metals. Shares of the airline fell 8 percent after the news.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.8 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 gained half a percent. Yahoo was up 1.1 percent.
Although the interview was published Thursday, BBC said the it was recorded in June. The dollar ticked up to 105.90 Japanese yen from 105.86 yen, and the euro edged up to $1.1015 from $1.1013. Zinc hit another 14-month high on falling mine output. On the Nasdaq, 1,128 issues rose and 1,043 fell.
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“People were expecting a lot worse and I don’t think it’s been that bad, which is part of the reason that the market started taking off two weeks ago”, said Peter Costa, president of trading firm Empire Executions. “We’ve been in this policy loop at the heart of it is what the dollar is doing”. The index has yet to have a day where it moved by 1%, up or down, in the last two weeks.
