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Gold futures settled higher on Friday to tally a weekly gain of 2.7%, as weakness in U.S. equities and uncertainty ahead of the Brexit vote later this month helped lift the metal’s safe-haven investment appeal. Gold for August delivery settled at $1,275.90 an ounce, up $3.20, or 0.3%.
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Oil futures held on to sharp losses Friday after a Baker Hughes report showed that rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose by 3 to 328, marking the second straight weekly rise in active drilling rigs. Last week, the rig count rose by 9 rigs. West Texas Intermediate crude futures trading for July delivery maintained steep losses, and were most recently down 2.7% at $49.22 a barrel. Brent oil , its international counterpart, was off 2.4% at $50.71 a barrel. Active gas rigs rose by 3 to 85, according to Baker Hughes. Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, said he was heartened by the report after last week’s jump in rigs. Market participants use the report to gauge whether U.S. producers are revving up oil-production activity, which could drive down the price oil. “It shows the market is stabilizing, but it wasn’t as [large of an increase] as some feared,” he said.
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Gawker Media LLC, bruised after losing a costly legal battle with professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a filing. The digital publisher was sued by Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, for violating his privacy by posting a clip of him having sex with the ex-wife of a friend. A jury awarded the wrestler $140 million in damages. Gawker had hired an investment banker to explore its options, including a possible sale, The Wall Street Journal reported. The filing was made with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Soybean futures rallied Friday to trade at their highest levels in nearly two years as the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut domestic supply estimates for the crop. Soybeans are expected to end the 2015/2016 crop year with stocks of 370 million bushels, down 30 million from last month’s estimate, the USDA said. Ending stocks for the 2016/2017 crop year were also cut by 45 million to 260 million bushels. July soybeans traded at $11.845 a bushel, up 8.5 cents, or 0.7%. Prices haven’t traded or settled at a level this high since late June 2014, according to FactSet data.
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Shares of Atkore International Group were trading at $16.29 Friday morning, above the company’s $16 initial public offering price. CD&R Allied Holdings, a stockholder in the company, sold 12 million shares to raise about $192 million. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and J.P. Morgan acted as the lead underwriters.
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Global government bond markets continued to rally Friday as investors flocked to safe assets, driving prices higher and pushing yields to new lows across the world. The yield on the 10-year German bond , known as the bund, tumbled to 0.02%, an all-time low, according to Tradeweb. And the yield on Britain’s benchmark government bond , known as the 10-year gilt, fell to an all-time low of 1.229%. Overnight, the Japanese 10-year benchmark yield touched a record low of negative 0.155%. The continued decline in yields spilled over to the U.S., with Treasury yields retreating to multimonth lows. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note , the U.S. benchmark bond, fell to 1.649%, its lowest point since Feb. 11, the day the stock market hit its nadir. Meanwhile the 30-year yield fell to 2.451%, its lowest level since February 2015, according to FactSet. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 0.755%, its lowest level since May 13. Meanwhile, the spread between the 10-year and the 2-year Treasury narrowed to its tightest since November 2007, a trend known as a flattening yield curve.
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U.S. stocks opened lower Friday, on track for a second day of losses, as investors sold risky assets ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting and the U.K.’s so-called Brexit vote due later this month. A drop in in crude-oil futures also weighed on risk appetite. The S&P 500 opened down 11 points, or 0.5%, to 2,104. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 88 points, or 0.5%, to 17,896 at the open. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite began the session down 42 points, or 0.8%, at 4,916.
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Shares of Axiall Corp. soared 25% in premarket trade Friday, after the chemical company agreed to be acquired by Westlake Chemical Corp. in a cash deal valued at $3.8 billion, including debt. As part of the deal, Westlake will pay $33 for each Axiall share outstanding. That represents a 28% premium to Thursday’s closing price of $25.18 for Axiall’s stock, and values Axiall at about $2.3 billion. Westlake expects the acquisition, which is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2016, to add to earnings in the first year, and to have cost synergies of about $100 million. Westlake’s stock tacked on 0.1% ahead of the open. Axiall’s stock, which has run up 68% year to date through Thursday, hasn’t traded as high as $33 since July 16, 2015.
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Atkore International Group , a manufacturer of electrical raceway products, priced its offering at $16 Thursday night, below its initial range of $20 to $22. CD&R Allied Holdings, a stockholder in the company, sold 12 million shares to raise about $192 million. The company won’t receive any of the proceeeds from the sale. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters. Shares are expected to being trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ATKR.”
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Banks stocks took a beating in premarket trade Friday, as longer-term Treasury yields fell to multi-month lows to extend a global rally in government bonds. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF slumped 1.1% ahead of the open. Among its more heavily-weighted components seeing early activity, shares of Bank of America Corp. dropped 1.6%, of Citigroup Inc. shed 1.6%, of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. lost 1.3%, of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. gave up 1.4% and of Wells Fargo & Co. declined 1.4%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.658%, the lowest level since Feb. 24. Yields on Japanese 10-year government bonds fell to all-time lows overnight, while yields on German and U.K. government bonds closed at record lows on Thursday. Lower long-term interest rates can hurt bank earnings, as they reduce the spread between what banks earn by funding longer-term assets, such as loans, with shorter-term liabilities.
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