Category: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks closed higher Friday as investors bet that a spate of economic data, including the March jobs report, wouldn’t speed up the pace of interest-rate increases. The S&P 500 gained 13.05 points, or 0.6%, to 2,072.79 — bolstered by health-care and consumer-staples shares like Walgreens Boots Alliance . The index gained 1.8% on the week, its strongest performance in a month. The Dow industrials gained 107.73 points, or 0.6%, to 17,792.82, led higher by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Visa Inc. . The blue-chip gauge rose 1.6%, its strongest gain in two weeks. The Nasdaq Composite gained 44.69 points, or 0.9%, to 4,914.54 for a weekly gain of 3% — its best performance in six weeks.

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Oil futures settled at a more than two week low on Friday, pressured by growing doubts that major crude producers will agree on a plan to freeze output. May WTI crude settled at $36.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.55, or 4%. Prices, which settled at their lowest level since March 15, lost 6.8% for the week, according to FactSet.

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Oil futures continued to trade lower after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 10 to 362 as of Friday. Meanwhile, the total U.S. rig count fell 14 to 450, which is another record low. May crude was at $36.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.44, or 3.8%. It traded at $36.80 before the data.

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Airline shares fell across the board on Friday following an analyst downgrade of several carriers, citing a more challenging environment this year. Michael Linenberg, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, lowered ratings of American Airlines Group , Delta Air Lines Inc. , United Continental , and Hawaiian Holdings Inc. to hold from buy. “We have observed a slowdown in U.S. corporate profits which is a concern given that they are a leading indicator of economic activity, and therefore, could lead to reduced demand for corporate travel,” he said in a note. Still, consumer spending remains healthy, which could lead to steady demand for leisure travel, he said. As a result, the analyst said he favors domestic airlines that are less dependent on corporate travel such as Southwest Airlines Co. , Alaska Air Group Inc. , JetBlue Airways Corp. , Spirit Airlines Inc. , and Skywest Inc. . United was the biggest laggard among S&P 500 airline stocks, falling 6%, followed by American which fell 3.6%. Delta dropped 3.4% and Southwest shed 1.5%. JetBlue shares rose 1.1% but Alaska, Spirit and Skywest all traded lower.

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The New York Stock Exchange on Friday suspended trading of eight securities, including Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., due to “market data” issues, a NYSE spokeswoman told MarketWatch. Trading in Amazon Inc., , Alphabet Inc. class A and C shares , Markel Corp. , Intuitive Surgical Inc. , and Autzone Inc. are among the securities that the exchange operator suspended for the day. The so-called Big Board discovered the glitch early Friday and said it has affected the exchange’s ability to “receive and disseminate market data” on those names. Those securities will be trading on other exchange platforms, however. The NYSE is hoping to resolve the issue by Monday, the spokeswoman said, declining to provide further detail. Such halts are unusual but follows an unprecedented four-hour halt of the entire NYSE back in July 2015.

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U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday, weighed down by losses in the energy sector thanks to another drop in oil prices. Market reaction to a solid jobs report appears to be negative. Continued strength in the labor market may force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again this year. The S&P 500 was down 9 points, or 0.5%, at 2,050. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 93 points, or 0.5%, to 17,594. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 29 points, or 0.6%, to 4,840 at the open.

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Ford Motor Co. said Friday that U.S. sales rose 8% to 254,711 vehicles, its best march sales result since 2001. Lincoln sales grew 11%, while Ford F-Series sales rose 9%. “Total Ford brand SUVs are off to their best start in company history, with first quarter total sales of 188,100 — up 15 percent versus a year ago,” the company said in a statement. Shares fell 1.5% in premarket trade, and are down 4% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.8%.

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Online and mobile food ordering company Grubhub Inc. on Friday joked that it is launching a ride-sharing business with a new product extension called Gruber. The company later said the release was an April Fool’s joke.

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