A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016.
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Gains in health care, technology and consumer-focused companies helped nudge US stock indexes higher in midday trading Tuesday.
The stock market hit record highs on Friday after the Labor Department said US employers added 255,000 jobs in July – far more than investors expected. Asian stock markets were little changed Tuesday after Wall Street closed almost flat a.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, yesterday said it was confident that the prices of crude oil would rise by next month as against the current low prices at the worldwide market.
France’s CAC 40 was up 0.2 percent, while Britain’s FTSE 100 index was flat.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 10 points, or 0.1 percent, to 18,540 as of 12:38 p.m. Futures showed that USA stocks were set for some gains, with Dow and S&P futures up 0.1 percent.
The major stock indexes appeared headed for another day of gains early on, as markets in Asia and Europe shrugged off new data showing China’s exports and imports declined again last month.
If accurate, this would be a vindication of its strategy since 2014 of squeezing non-OPEC suppliers by keeping production at high levels despite low prices. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) also jumped 2.9 percent to settle at $43.02.
Speculation on a potential meeting on market cooperation between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other oil producers also fizzled after disinterest shown by non-OPEC member and top oil exporter Russian Federation, traders said. It is unusual for OPEC to gather outside of their regularly set meetings and Monday’s report pushed up the price of crude oil overnight.
The price of Brent crude, which sets the Global oil benchmark, was up 1.4% cents at $44.91 a barrel Monday, below this year’s high of near $53 a barrel in June. Moreover, EIA reported last week that crude inventories increased to 1.4 million barrels for the week ending Aug 3, preceded by an increase of 1.7 million barrels in the week before (read: Oil Prices Plummet on Continued Supply Glut ).
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Right now Russian Federation sees no grounds for resuming talks to put a freeze on oil production, but is open to join discussions if OPEC members raise the issue, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.6 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9 percent. Crude oil stocks were 36.6% higher than the five-year average through the last reporting period. In currency markets, the dollar weakened to 101.86 yen from 102.47 yen in Monday, while the euro also weakened at $1.1113 from $1.1083. Analysts in a Reuters poll forecast that USA crude stockpiles fell by 1 million barrels last week.
