Technology and health-care stocks led the gains
A solid rally in U.S. stocks ran out of momentum in the final two hours of the session, with the main indexes ending only modestly higher Thursday, 10 September 2015. A jump in oil prices helped lift the overall market, but uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting next week made for volatile trade and kept a lid on gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76.83 points, or 0.5%, to 16,330.40, with 23 out of the 30 blue-chip companies finishing in positive territory. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day up 39.72 points, or 0.8%, at 4,796.25, while its biggest component. The S&P 500 closed 10.25 points, or 0.5%, higher at 1,952.29.
Technology and health-care stocks led the gains, while nine of the index's 10 main sectors finished higher. The main benchmark is still down 5.2% year to date, however.
Apple jumped 2.6% today, a day after displaying its new products.
Economic data at Wall Street today included Initial Claims, Import/Export Prices, and Wholesale Inventories. The initial claims level declined to 275,000 for the week ending September 5 from a downwardly revised 281,000 (from 282,000) while the consensus expected a drop to 275,000. After a brief slip to multi-decade lows in July, the claims level has stabilized around 275,000, which is a level that supports the idea that the labor market is encroaching on full employment.
Wholesale inventories declined 0.1% in July after increasing a downwardly revised 0.7% (from 0.9%) in June while the consensus expected an increase of 0.3%. That was the first contraction since a 0.7% decline took place in May 2013, likely resulting from pricing changes and not changes in inventory management. A sharp drop in petroleum prices in July led to a 4.8% decline in wholesale petroleum inventories, but excluding petroleum, wholesale inventories were flat.
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The next big U.S. economic data release is the August retail sales number on Tuesday.
Thursday's economic data did little to help investors interpret when the Fed might decide to start increasing interest rates. Falling import and export prices suggested inflation trending lower, while a drop in weekly jobless claims pointed to a labor market showing signs of continued strength. Falling import prices are a significant factor in keeping U.S. inflation low at a time when the Federal Reserve wants to see prices increase.
In the U.K., the Bank of England left its key lending rate at a record low of 0.5%, where it has stood since March 2009. The decision to keep rates on hold was widely anticipated by economists.
Bullion prices ended higher at Comex on Thursday, 10 September 2015. Gold futures finished higher ending a string of losses that took prices to their lowest level in a month as investors continued to look for hints on the outcome of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week. Gold for December delivery picked up $7.30, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,109.30 an ounce on Comex. December silver gained 6.9 cents, or 0.5%, to $14.645 an ounce.
Crude oil futures on Thursday, 10 September 2015 recouped losses from a day earlier as expectations for further declines in U.S. production helped offset a bigger-than-expected weekly increase in domestic crude supplies. Natural-gas prices also finished higher after separate data showed an increase in natural-gas inventories that was below market expectations.
October West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on $1.77, or 4%, to settle at $45.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after dropping $1.79, or 3.9%, a day earlier. Oil prices had pared some of their earlier gains in the wake of the supply data, before pushing toward session highs again.
On Thursday, the EIA reported an increase of 2.6 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended 4 September 2015. Market had forecast a crude-stock climb of 300,000 barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute Wednesday said supplies gained by 2.1 million barrels. Meanwhile, gasoline supplies rose 400,000 barrels while distillate stockpiles climbed by one million barrels last week.
Tomorrow, August PPI (consensus -0.1%) will be reported at 8:30 ET while the preliminary reading of the Michigan Sentiment survey (consensus 91.5) will be released at 10:00 ET. The day's data will be topped off with the 14:00 ET release of the Treasury Budget for August.
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