TOKYO (AP) – Global stocks wavered Friday as investors looked to see if the three major US indexes can add to their record close as well as upcoming retail sales figures.
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Oil prices jumped 5 percent on comments from the Saudi oil minister about possible action to stabilize prices and the International Energy Agency’s forecast that crude markets would rebalance in the next few months.
BEATING THE STREET: Macy’s and Kohl’s surged after the department store chains reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s expectations despite continued competition from online outlets like Amazon.com.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31 points, or 0.2%, to 18583 and the S&P 500 lost 0.1%. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped less than one point, or 0.1 percent, to 2,185. The Dow Average and Nasdaq added more than 0.4 per cent. Thursday’s big mover is the New Zealand dollar, which is stronger by 0.5% at.7242 despite the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cutting its key interest rate to a record low 2.00% and suggesting “current projections and assumptions indicate that further policy easing will be required to ensure that future inflation settles near the middle of the target range”. Macy’s stock rose $5.81, or 17.09 per cent, to US$39.81, even though it announced it would close 100 stores next year. Energy stocks followed higher crude prices with the European Oil and Gas index increasing 1 percent. Nordtsrom, which was due to report its latest quarterly results after the close of regular trading Thursday, gained $2.82, or 6.4 percent, to $47.05, while Gap added 87 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $24.90.
Wall Street is keenly interested in retail data, as consumers account for roughly two-thirds, or 70%, of US economic activity.
MARKETS OVERSEAS: The DAX index in Germany fell 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 was slid 0.1 percent. The stock shed $4.45 to $11.91. Brent crude, used to price global oils, fell back, losing 16 cents to $45.88 a barrel. Tullow Oil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell gained from 1.1 to 4.4 percent.
OIL PRICES: Benchmark U.S. crude was up $1.02, or 2.3 percent, at $44.51 a barrel in NY. What’s more the second-quarter GDP gain of 1.2% was driven by consumer spending as business investment was very weak. Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, was up 70 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $46.74 a barrel in London.
Jerusalim pointed to new U.S. Labor Department data showing that applications for new unemployment benefits fell by 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 266,000, a sign that layoffs are low and employers are probably adding new jobs. Ahead of the open, the S&P and Dow futures were both up 0.1 percent. Factory output rose 6 percent in July over a year ago, down from 6.2 percent in June.
In the fixed income market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note was down to 1.484% from a close of 1.57% Thursday.
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BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices rose. In currency markets, the dollar weakened to 101.18 yen from 101.93 on Thursday. The euro rose to $1.1157 from $1.1137.
