US stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday as energy companies declined with the price of oil. Health care companies and banks were among the biggest decliners, while utilities led the gainers.
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US DATA: Investors will monitor the release of a report on retail sales in the USA, which is expected to show monthly growth of 0.4 percent in July.
The S&P 500 Index rose 10.38 points or 0.5% to close at a new record of 2,185.86. The Nasdaq composite is down 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,225.
The rally in department stores’ shares pushed up the S&P 500’s consumer discretionary index 0.87 per cent.
The S&P 500 was down 6.62 points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,175.12. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.1% Friday and 4.1% for the week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.52% from 1.55 late Tuesday.
It advanced 0.5pc in the day to 5228, closing three points higher than the record 5225 which is set two days earlier. Yahoo, which owns a stake in Alibaba, rose 3.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.1 percent, while Australia’s S&P ASX 200 fell 0.2 percent.
EYE ON CONSUMERS: Corporate earnings for the second quarter, most of which have now been reported, seem to have been relatively good. The stock added 43 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $10.37.
The Dow industrials slipped 37.05 points, or 0.2%, to 18576.47, for a weekly gain of 0.2%.
West Texas Intermediate, the USA benchmark, rose 2.67% to $44.67 a barrel on Friday, ending the day at three-week highs.
US stock index futures were higher on Thursday as oil prices steadied and investors awaited the weekly jobless claims data for hints of a strengthening labor market. “Investors are now weighing the low interest rate environment against high valuations”. Brent crude, used to price global oils, was up 70 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $46.74 a barrel in London.
CMC Markets’ Jasper Lawler said: “Weak industrial production and retail sales data from China offered further evidence its economy is slowing”.
“Oil is increasingly pulling back towards the $40 a barrel level again and many in the markets are concerned that the shorts may even be looking for prices to drop down toward the $35 level”, Angus Nicholson, a market analyst in Melbourne at IG Ltd., said in an e-mail to clients. Natural gas fell 5 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $2.56 per 1,000 cubic feet. Copper gained 2 cents, or 1 percent, to $2.17 a pound. Silver futures lost a little less than 1 percent to $19.98 on the day.
Expectations that the Fed will be slow to raise interest rates boosted USA government bonds and weakened the dollar, which dropped against the Japanese yen and euro.
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Meanwhile, gold rose almost 1% while government bonds firmed in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
