All three Wall Street indexes ended at record highs for the first time since New Year’s Eve, 1999, as surging oil prices and strong earnings from department stores Macy’s and Kohl’s buoyed investor sentiment.
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All three key US indexes closed at record highs on Thursday.
HAPPY RETAILERS: Nordtsrom surged 7.8 percent a day after the department store chain reported earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations.
Crude oil jumped as much as 5 per cent on comments from the Saudi oil minister about potential action to stabilise prices and an International Energy Agency forecast that crude oil markets would rebalance in the next few months.
West Texas Intermediate for September delivery climbed 4.3 percent to settle at $43.49 a barrel in NY.
Treasury yields were as follows on Thursday afternoon: The yield on the 2-Year Note was 0.76 percent.
A loss of 37.39 points or 0.20% closing at 18,495.66 from the Dow Jones Industrial Average while the Standard and Poor’s closed at 2,175.49, 500 lower and a loss of 6.25 points or 0.29%. The Dow Average and Nasdaq added more than 0.4 percent.
Stocks are rising Thursday led by energy companies and retailers as the market rebounds from modest losses a day earlier and heads toward another record-high close.
ENERGIZED: Several oil and gas companies got a boost from the rise in crude prices. Brent crude, used to price global oils, slid 93 cents, or 2.1 percent, to close at $44.05 per barrel in London. The S&P retail index rose 0.3 percent.
MARKETS OVERSEAS: The DAX index in Germany fell 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 was slid 0.1 percent. Murphy Oil climbed $1.03, or 3.8 percent, to $28.47, while Chesapeake Energy rose 23 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $5.03.
Asian shares rose Friday, tracking the rally in USA stocks that was driven by strong gains by energy companies and retailers. The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits was little changed last week, holding near four-decade lows that point to a more robust labor market. Most of these stores will close early in 2017, the company said. Retailers paced stock advances, with Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. climbing at least 14 percent after reporting quarterly earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked to a historic high just ahead of the noon hour on Thursday. The S&P retail index rose 0.3 per cent. The stock rose $5.40, or 15.7 percent, to $39.34. General Growth Properties fell 89 cents, or 2.9 percent, to $29.83, while Simon Property Group shed $4.01, or 1.8 percent, at $214.97.
US stocks edged higher in early trading Thursday as investors sized up quarterly results for big department store chains and other companies.
Alibaba rose 4.8 percent after the Chinese e-commerce giant posted a 59 percent jump in quarterly revenue.
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That is in the bottom 2 per cent of readings since the weekly survey began in 1987. In currency markets, the dollar weakened to 101.29 yen from 101.90 on Tuesday, while the euro strengthened to $1.1175 from $1.1107.
