OIL: Crude oil prices were moving higher after the International Energy Agency said global oil demand won’t grow as much as expected next year because of the weaker global economy.
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Macy’s shares soared as much as 18 percent, marking the best day for the department store operator in almost eight years, after it reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly comparable-store sales and said it would close 100 stores.
It may surprise many, but it’s been nearly 17 years since the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, broader S&P 500 index and tech-heavy Nasdaq have hit record highs on the same day.
The rally in Macy’s helped the S&P 500’s consumer discretionary index jump 0.8%, making it the biggest gainer among the benchmark’s 10 major indexes. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index rose 0.5 per cent to 5,228.40.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent to 18,613.52.
The energy index.SPNY fell 1.41 per cent, hurt by a drop in oil prices after the US Government reported a surprise crude stockpile build. Exxon Mobil lost 1.75 per cent and was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and the Dow. EIA reported that the USA commercial crude oil inventories rose 1.1 million barrels to 523.6 million for the week ended August 5.
The S&P 500 is up 141.85 points, or 6.9 percent. Brent crude, used to price worldwide oils, was up 40 cents, or 0.9 per cent, at $46.44 a barrel in London.
The price of crude oil climbed 0.7 percent to $41.98 a barrel in NY. Financials .SPSY followed with a 0.4 percent decline.
A strong US dollar, a rally in the health care sector and a reversal in crude oil pushed investors back into risk assets and out of bonds. The stock shed $2.93 to $37.95. Add in a dividend yield of 2.6%, and the index’s total return could top 10% over the next year. The stock rose $5.70, or 16.8 percent, to $39.70. Murphy Oil climbed $1.14, or 4.2 percent, to $28.58, while Chesapeake Energy rose 20 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $5.
Shake Shack dropped 7 percent to $38 after the company’s quarterly comparable-sales growth slowed more than expected.
Investors are hesitant to buy into bond rallies amid rising speculation the Fed will raise interest rates this year, with the probability of a 2016 hike at about 48%, according to futures data compiled by Bloomberg.
J.C. Penney, which reports on Friday, surged 8.63 per cent.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.51 percent.
Twenty-seven of the thirty Dow components closed higher for the session, while the remaining three stocks retreated. Natural gas fell a penny to $2.55 per 1,000 cubic feet.
On the currency front, the US dollar is trading at 101.07 yen compared to the 101.22 yen it fetched at the close of NY trading on Thursday.
– Concordia International slumped 38.1 percent after the drugmaker reported disappointing sales, cut its annual forecasts and suspended its dividend.
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Expectations that the Fed will be slow to raise interest rates boosted US government bonds and weakened the dollar, which dropped against the Japanese yen and euro.
