Thursday, the three major USA indices – the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq – all finished at record highs for the first time since December 31, 1999.
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A stock market rally since late June has pushed the S&P 500 index.SPX up 7.0 percent in 2016, helped by better-than-expected quarterly earnings and low interest rates, but some investors are anxious about high valuations.
Investors also welcomed some better-than-expected quarterly results from Macy’s and Kohl’s, which spurred gains for several other big retail chains.
Crude oil jumped as much as 5.0 per cent on comments from the Saudi oil minister about potential action to stabilise prices and the International Energy Agency’s forecast that crude oil markets would rebalance in the next few months. The benchmark measure rose 0.5 percent to 2,185.94 at 12:44 p.m.in NY, above its August 5 all-time closing high of 2,182.87.
Dow members ExxonMobil and Chevron gained 1.3 per cent and 0.8 respectively as oil prices rose.
Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rose by around half a percent yesterday, while the Dow Jones was up by more than 0.6% to bring all three to fresh highs on the same day – the first time this has happened since 1999.
The Nasdaq added 24 points, or 0.46 percent, to 5,228, also a new all-time high.
After a strong sell-off, a low US stocks index was faced by energy companies which are comparably low despite the gains from the day before.
The Commerce Department said that Americans spent less at grocery stores, clothing shops, sporting goods and electronics and appliance outlets in July. Meanwhile, Dillard’s rose 3.5 percent after the retailer posted a second-quarter profit that was larger than analysts expected. Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, was up 62 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $44.66 in London. The 10-Year Note was last yielding 1.57 percent while the 30-Year Bond yield was 2.28 percent.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped but ended the week just above where they started. China’s Shanghai Composite index rose 0.2 percent at 3,023.26.
On Thursday, Macy’s (NYSE:M) was a leading retail company reporting second quarter earnings.
In economic news, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing for first-time jobless claims fell 1,000 to 266,000, which “points to healthy labor market conditions across the US”, according to Barclays. In particular, Macy’s reported earnings of $0.54 per share on revenue of $5.87 billion, and said it would shutter approximately 100 stores across the US. Kohl’s climbed 15 percent.
Oil rose almost 2 percent to $44.30 a barrel in NY. South Korea’s KOSPI slid 0.3 percent to 2,038.72 following the South Korean central bank’s decision to keep monetary policy rate unchanged.
Demand for bonds as an asset class has risen this year.
After moving mostly higher over the course of the previous session, stocks fluctuated as the trading day progressed on Friday. Total volume traded was 25 percent above the 100-day average.
In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline added a penny to $1.37 a gallon, while heating oil rose 2 cents to $1.41 a gallon. The closely watched EUR/USD pair fell 0.19 percent to 1.1139 euros. Writing for Money Observer last month, JPMorgan’s Stephanie Flanders pointed out that one prominent survey of market sentiment found that barely 19 per cent of United States investors now describe themselves as bullish.
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On the earnings front, Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s (LOW), Target (TGT), Cisco Systems (CSCO), and Wal-Mart (WMT) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results next week. The euro strengthened to $1.1165 from $1.1141.
