The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at a record high yesterday, driven higher by energy and other economically sensitive sectors, while the NASDAQ closed in red as mega-cap growth stocks slipped. Strong gains by Goldman Sachs, Caterpillar, and Chevron sent Dow to the record. Energy and materials continued this week's momentum, leading gains among S&P 500 sectors. Defensive utilities and real estate led sectoral declines. Energy, financial, materials, industrials are all outperforming. They tend to be cyclically oriented sectors and tend to benefit during periods when the economies are reopening and expanding. Strong economic data and earnings pushed the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes to record high last week, but markets have wobbled amid concerns about rising inflation and potentially higher U.S interest rates. The Nasdaq Composite gave up its earlier gains and ended 51.08 points or 0.37%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.29% to hit a new all-time high. The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Dow Inc., which rose 2.81% or 1.86 points to trade at 68.08 at the close. Meanwhile, Chevron Corp added 2.67% or 2.83 points to end at 108.94 and Merck & Company Inc. was up 2.25% or 1.71 points to 77.70 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Boeing Co, which fell 2.38% or 5.55 points to trade at 228.08 at the close. Walt Disney Company declined 1.49% or 2.74 points to end at 181.51 and Visa Inc. Class A was down 1.14% or 2.65 points to 229.38.
NASDAQ 100
The NASDAQ index lost 0.37%. The top performers on the NASDAQ Composite were Nemaura Medical Inc. which rose 134.47% to 11.02, Chiasma Inc. which was up 39.79% to settle at 3.97, and Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation which gained 31.20% to close at 25.02. The worst performers were Cocrystal Pharma Inc. which was down 31.78% to 1.4600 in late trade, Intrusion Inc. which lost 29.31% to settle at 10.18, and Sequential Brands Group Inc. which was down 26.73% to 12.4700 at the close.
Oil
Oil prices edged higher today in the Asian trading session, recouping early losses, as crude stockpiles in the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer, fell more sharply than expected as refining output rose and exports surged. U.S West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained by 9 cents, or 0.1%, to $65.72 a barrel. Easing coronavirus restrictions in Europe have led to a pick-up in fuel demand, analysts from Citi said in a note. As the roll-out of vaccines continues and a pent-up summer driving season continues to manifest, this trend should accelerate, keeping demand for motor fuels robust and boosting market confidence in the recovery story. U.S crude stocks fell more than expected last week as refining output rose and exports surged, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday. Crude inventories fell by 8 million barrels in the week to April 30 to 485.1 million barrels, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.3 million-barrel drop.
Precious and Base Metals
Gold prices rose today as a pullback in the U.S dollar and Treasury yields lifted demand for the safe-haven metal, while investors awaited U.S non-farm payroll data for April due later this week. Spot gold was up 0.4% at $1,794.30 per ounce. U.S gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,794.20 per ounce. The U.S Federal Reserve is continuing to push back here, it is good for gold because it’s keeping yields lower. I think this will eventually lead to a weaker U.S dollar. A test of $1,800 is expected sooner rather than later the way this market is marching on to the beat of a very dovish Fed. Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields slipped below 1.6% and hovered close to a one-week low hit on Tuesday, reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest-bearing gold. The dollar index dipped 0.1%, moving further away from a near two-week high hit yesterday. Focus now shifts to Friday’s U.S monthly jobs report, which is expected to show non-farm-payrolls increased by 978,000 last month. The U.S. economy may be growing more quickly and unemployment falling faster than the core of Fed policymakers projected in March, Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said yesterday. However, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans reiterated his worries about reaching the 2% inflation goal and said he expected monetary policy to stay accommodative for some time. Lower interest rates decrease the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. Spot gold is expected to retest resistance at $1,802 per ounce, with a good chance of breaking above this level and rising to $1,816. Palladium rose 0.4% to $2,984.97 per ounce, after scaling an all-time high of $3,017.18 on Tuesday on supply shortfalls. Silver was up 1% at $26.77 per ounce, while platinum dipped 0.5% to $1,230.66.
Traditional Agricultures
Corn futures touched their highest price in more than eight years yesterday as concerns over global supplies and strong demand continued to fuel strong gains. A blistering rally in the market has raised costs for global producers of corn-based ethanol and of meat made from livestock that consume the grain as feed. The December contract posted the biggest gains in the latest surge.
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