WALL STREET: A sharp sell-off in energy companies pulled us stock indexes modestly lower Wednesday, wiping out small gains from the day before.
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Oil prices rose almost 2 per cent, supporting the rally, after the International Energy Agency forecast crude markets would rebalance in the next few months.
Shares of Macy’s rose 18% as the department-store operator reported better-than-expected sales and said it plans to close 100 stores. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 10 points or 0.5 percent to 2,186.
The Dow Jones rose 117.8 points, or 0.6%, to 18,613.5.
US futures augur higher opening on Wall Street, with the Dow futures up 0.2 percent at 18,494 and the S&P futures up 0.2 percent at 2,171.98.
A rally since late June has taken the S&P 500 up over 6 per cent in 2016, as continued low interest rates encourage investors to buy United States equities, although many investors are concerned about high valuations. China’s Shanghai Composite index 0.1 percent down at 3,015.16.
The S&P 500 is up 131.55 points, or 6.4 percent. (Nasdaq: YHOO) rallied more than 4.1% after the company received a big boost from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. September Crude Oil futures gained $1.35 or 3.24% and were now trading at $43.06.
ASIA’S DAY: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index finished 0.4 percent up at 22,580.55.
The Dow is up 1,070.63 points, or 6.1 percent.
ANALYST QUOTE: “All eyes will now turn to Friday’s retail sales figures from the US, which could provide the market with some direction”, said Alex Furber, senior client services executive at CMC Markets.
USA stocks edged higher in early trading Thursday as investors sized up quarterly results for big department store chains and other companies.
While the Dow and S&P 500 have hit record highs in tandem in recent years, the Nasdaq went 15 years without hitting a new high before 2015. The IEA also said projected that global oil demand won’t grow as much as it previously expected next year, citing a weaker global economy.
The S&P 500 was up 9.41 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 2,184.9.
Shake Shack dropped 7 percent to $38 after the company’s quarterly comparable-sales growth slowed more than expected. Devon Energy added $1.99, or 5 percent, to $41.57, while Newfield Exploration gained $2.03, or 4.5 percent, to $47.40.
The three indexes closed at record highs. South Korea’s Kospi inched up less than 0.1%.
Other commodities were mixed with the September natural gas falling a penny to US$2.55 per mmBTU, December gold contracts dropped $1.90 to US$1,350 an ounce and September copper contracts rose two cents to US$2.19 a pound.
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Treasury prices settled near session lows as yields rose broadly; the yield on the benchmark 10-year note jumped 7 bps at 1.56%. The euro weakened to $1.1141 from $1.1175.
