Tag: stock market

Oil prices turned lower in the last few minutes of trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, pressured by a sudden move higher in a key index for the U.S. dollar, which had tapped their lowest levels in three years. CNBC reported that President Donald Trump said the dollar is poised to strengthen, lifting the greenback and putting pressure on dollar-denominated prices of oil just ahead of their settlement. March West Texas Intermediate crude fell 10 cents, or nearly 0.2%, to settle at $65.51 a barrel.

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The U.S. dollar turned positive and retraced its loss against rivals in Thursday afternoon trading after a CNBC interview with President Donald Trump endorsed the strength of the dollar. Trump said the greenback would strengthen along with the U.S. economy, calling for greenback to get “stronger and stronger,” in an excerpt from a previously recorded interview on the network in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. The president’s comments follow remarks from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin who said a weaker dollar benefited U.S. trade. A weaker currency can be beneficial for exports and trade, which has been one of the key causes of the Trump administration. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index reclaimed much of its lost territory, which took it to a fresh three-year low, and was last up 0.1% at 89.306.

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Gold futures rose Thursday to settle at their highest in about year and a half, buoyed by weakness in the U.S. dollar, as a leading index for the greenback continued to touch their lowest levels in more than three years. A weaker dollar tends to boost dollar-denominated prices of gold. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index was down 0.5% at 88.72. February gold rose $6.60, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,362.90 an ounce, marking the highest finish since Aug. 4, 2016 for a most-active futures contract, according to FactSet data.

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he would reconsider U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership if the agreement was much better. “If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP,” Trump told CNBC in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump also said the U.S. is trying to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. “I think we have a good chance, but we’ll see what happens,” he said. On Tuesday, negotiators from 11 Pacific nations agreed on a TPP deal. There are no ongoing talks that involve the U.S.

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Shares of Microsoft Corp. shot up 1.3% toward a record high in midday trade Thursday, after some upbeat comments by analysts ahead of the software giant’s fiscal second-quarter results due out next week. The stock was still below Wednesday’s all-time intraday high of $93.43, but was well above Tuesday’s record close of $91.90. J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Murphy raised his stock price target to $87 from $78. He said a survey of 30 Microsoft partners produced “healthy” results and had upbeat outlooks for 2018, and increasingly viewed Microsoft’s Azure cloud business has moving closer to parity with Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS in terms of technical capability and consumption. Separately, Canaccord Genuity analyst Richard Davis said it’s “reasonable” to expect Microsoft’s stock to appreciate between 10% and 20% a year for the next five years, which puts the company on a path to be the first trillion-dollar valued enterprise software stock. Microsoft is currently the third-most valuable company in the S&P 500 with a market capitalization of $717.3 billion. Microsoft’s stock has rallied 18.3% over the past three months, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has rallied 14.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 13.3%.

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Tesla Inc. said Thursday it will post its fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 results after the bell on Feb. 7. A webcast with analysts follows at 2:30 p.m. Pacific, the Silicon Valley car maker said in a statement. Analysts polled by FactSet expect Tesla to report an adjusted loss of $3.04 a share on sales of $3.3 billion in the quarter, which would compare with an adjusted loss of 69 cents a share on sales of $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016. Tesla shares rose 0.2% on Thursday.

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The Dow Jones Transportation Average tumbled 1.5% in morning trade Thursday, with 19 of its 20 components trading lower, bucking the 137-point, or 0.5%, rally in the Dow Jones Industrial Average , amid sharp declines in airline and railroad stocks. That adds to the Dow transports 1.4% tumble on Wednesday, which also came despite a 41-point, or 0.2%, advance in the Dow industrials. The last time the Dow transports fell at least 1% in back-to-back sessions while the Dow industrials rose for both sessions was in April 2007, or a little less than 6-months before the October 2007 bull market peak. Back then, the Dow transports fell 1.29% on April 26, 2007 and dropped 1.04% on April 27, while the Dow industrials gained 0.1% on both days. The century-old Dow Theory of market analysis suggests that the Dow transports and the Dow industrials need to trend in the same direction for a long-term trend to have staying power. The idea being, if transportation companies aren’t delivering what industrial companies are making, it could warn of economic weakness.

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 288 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 19. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast a decrease of 272 billion, while the five-year average withdrawal is 164 billion. Total stocks now stand at 2.296 trillion cubic feet, down 519 billion cubic feet from a year ago, and 486 billion below the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas was down 2.9 cents, or 0.8%, at $3.48 per million British thermal units, up from $3.464 before the data.

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From:: Stock Market News

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 288 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 19. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast a decrease of 272 billion, while the five-year average withdrawal is 164 billion. Total stocks now stand at 2.296 trillion cubic feet, down 519 billion cubic feet from a year ago, and 486 billion below the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas was down 2.9 cents, or 0.8%, at $3.48 per million British thermal units, up from $3.464 before the data.

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Caterpillar Inc.’s stock has transformed into a headwind for the broader stock market from a tailwind, as the stock took a dive into negative territory right after the opening bell. The stock was up as much as 2.8% when it opened at its intraday high of $173.10, but was recently down 1.4% to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s decliners. The stock was adding about 33 points to the Dow’s price, which was up 133.56 points at its intraday high. But Caterpillar’s stock is now shaving 16 points off the Dow, which is up 91 points. The stock’s earlier gain followed better-than-expected earnings and an upbeat outlook. Caterpillar’s post-earnings conference call with analysts is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET.

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