Canada’s main stock index notched its highest close in more than a year on Monday as energy stocks jumped with rising oil prices amid improved risk sentiment and on speculation that OPEC would seek to restrain output. The S&P 500 index ended up less than a point at 2,181.74, after setting a record high of 2,187.69 earlier in the day.
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The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 0.24 per cent to end at 5,225.48 points, exceeding a record high set on Friday. Both S&P 500 and Dow Jones also followed with slight gains of 2,181.7 and 18,533.05 points, which was up from 2,179 and 18,510 points, respectively.
The S&P 500 was down 5.09 points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,176.65. While the profit contraction helped keep equities in check for most of the past year, they’ve churned to all-time highs on the prospect of ever more central-bank stimulus.
THE QUOTE: “The volumes have been very light and you don’t have much key economic news coming out in the US this week”, said Sean Lynch, co-head of global equity strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
Most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves on the day, although gold stocks are seeing considerable strength amid an increase by the price of the precious metal.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.2% to 138 as of 11:02 a.m.in Tokyo after closing Tuesday at the highest since 11 August.
USA crude oil fell 0.6% to $42.77 a barrel after fluctuating between losses and gains.
The benchmark closed little changed on Tuesday, with speculators increasing bets in volatility markets that USA stocks will keep rallying.
The MSCI All-Country World index rose 0.4 per cent, supported by a broad equity rally on Friday’s payrolls data and as Europe’s under-pressure banks extended gains from post stress-test lows.
Yelp jumped almost 14 percent to $37.11 after the company swung to a surprise profit and raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Analysts have tempered their estimates for a decline in second-quarter net income to 2.7 percent, from a 5.8 percent drop less than a month ago. In currency markets, the dollar weakened to 101.31 yen from 101.90 on Tuesday, while the euro strengthened to $1.1169 from $1.1107.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.14-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq a 1.31-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
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Shares of Dow component Walt Disney fell 1.5 percent to $95.25 in premarket trading, after the company reported results overnight and bought a 33 percent stake in video-streaming firm BAMTech.
