Nike remains the best Dow performer of the day
U.S. stocks closed mostly higher but in a mixed mode on Monday, 10 September 2018 with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each snapping a four-day losing streak on the back of a recovery in technology shares. The day's gains were fairly broad-based, with eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 industry groups finishing in positive territory led by utilities and real estate, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average rallied to a record.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 59.47 points, or 0.2%, to 25,857.07 but the Dow transports climbed 1.8% to 11,554.08. The S&P 500 rose 5.45 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 2,877.13 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 21.62 points, or 0.3%, to 7,924.16.
Recent market activity has been driven in part by uncertainty surrounding trade between the U.S. and its major trading partners. President Donald Trump recently threatened China with the latest in a series of tariffs, which would impact an additional $267 billion in Chinese goods. This comes on top of an already-proposed $200 billion in tariffs. Investors are concerned that such measures, especially if they are met with retaliatory actions by other countries, could spiral into a full-on trade war, one that could have negative implications for global economic growth.
Shares in Apple fell 1.3% in the wake of Trump's comments but still up 29% for the year.
Tesla shares rallied 8.5% after Chief Executive Elon Musk announced a management shake-up late Friday. Nike shares rose 2.2% after data showed that the company's online sales grew 31% following its decision to craft its Just Do It campaign around ex-NFL player Colin Kaepernick. Nike was also the best Dow performer of the day.
The jobs report released Friday showed that the U.S. created 201,000 new jobs in August, while the unemployment rate remained at an 18-year low of 3.9%. The data were seen as supporting the Federal Reserve's intention to raise interest rates in September, which already is expected, and possibly once more in December. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee is slated to convene a two-day gathering on Sept. 26.
Against this backdrop, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index, a popular measure of the buck's strength against a basket of six rivals, has gained 3.3% so far this year, creating a headwind for dollar-pegged commodities. It slipped in Monday action, however, ahead of key policy meetings for the Bank of England and the European Central Bank this week, with the British pound strengthening on hopes that a Brexit deal could be reached within six to eight weeks.
Reviewing Monday's economic data, which was limited to the Consumer Credit report for July - the Consumer Credit report for July showed an increase of $16.6 billion (consensus $14.5 billion). June credit growth was revised to $8.5 billion from $10.2 billion. The key takeaway from the report is that the credit expansion in July was driven almost entirely by nonrevolving credit.
Bullion prices ended in a mixed mode on Monday, 10 September 2018 at Comex. Silver gained while gold ended tad lower. Gold futures saw a modest loss on Monday, bucking earlier support from weakness in the dollar to finish below $1,200 an ounce for the second time in a week.
December gold settled down 60 cents, or 0.05%, at $1,199.80 an ounce. That marked a second finish below $1,200 so far this month. The precious metal had logged a weekly decline of about 0.5% last week, enough to bump the string of weekly losses to eight in the past nine. December silver rose 1.1 cents, or less than 0.1%, to $14.181 an ounce Monday after last week's loss of 2.7%.
U.S. benchmark crude prices ended lower on Monday, 10 September 2018 on growing concerns that storms churning in the Atlantic will hurt energy demand on the U.S. East Coast. Global benchmark crude prices, however, continued to climb on expectations that renewed sanctions on Iran will tighten the world's supply of oil.
October West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, fell 21 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $67.54 a barrel, pulling back from an intraday high of $68.52. November Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained 54 cents, or 0.7%, to $77.37 a barrel.
The market is showing concerns about Hurricane Florence in the Atlantic and its potential to weaken energy demand on the East Coast. The storm is expected to approach the coast of South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center. South Carolina's governor issued a mandatory evacuation order for essentially all of the state's coastline starting Tuesday afternoon.
Looking at other markets, U.S. Treasuries were flat on Monday, with the benchmark 10-yr yield closing unchanged at 2.94%.
Looking ahead, investors will receive the August NFIB Small Business Optimism Index, the July Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and July Wholesale Inventories on Tuesday.
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