The day's strongest sector was energy
U.S. stocks eked out gains on Monday, 10 April 2017 as strength in energy shares helped to offset selling pressure sparked by geopolitical concerns, but market sentiment remained cautious going into the first-quarter earnings season.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.92 points to finish at 20,658.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 3.11 points to end at 5,880.93. The S&P 500 index edged up 1.62 points to close at 2,357.16.
The stock market opened the week with a win, but concerns over heightened geopolitical tensions held gains in check throughout the session.
The day's strongest sector was energy which rose 0.8% on the back of a firm gains in crude-oil prices. Crude has been in an uptrend, rising nearly 10% over the past two weeks and hitting its highest level since early March. A recent move higher followed the U.S. airstrike on Syria. Increased tension in the Middle East tends to boost oil prices by limiting supply levels.
Also Read
Financials were among the weakest sectors of the day, with Bank of America down 0.6%, while Wells Fargo & Co. lost 0.6%.
Both energy and financials have been in focus of late as investors await earnings. On the flip side, the financials and telecom services groups settled at the bottom of the day's leaderboard while the health care and technology groups performed only modestly better. The top-weighted technology sector suffered from a lackluster performance from Apple and selling pressure within the semiconductor industry.
Bullion metals ended lower at Comex on Monday, 10 APril 2017. Gold settled with a loss on Monday, after a brief rebound attempt failed to lift prices past a key technical level.
June gold fell $3.40, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,253.90 an ounce. During the session, however, prices briefly turned higher to touch an intraday high of $1,258.90. Meanwhile, silver for May delivery lost 23.6 cents, or 1.3%, to end at $17.915 an ounce.
Crude oil futures settled higher on Monday, 10 April 2017 stretching their wining streak to a fifth consecutive session, as the shutdown of Libya's largest oil field and uncertainty in the Middle East, following the U.S. airstrike on Syria, raised concerns over disruptions to global crude supplies. The U.S. benchmark has now posted gains in nine of the past 10 sessions.
May West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 84 cents, or 1.6%, to settle at $53.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest settlement since 7 March 2017.June Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange added 74 cents, or 1.3%, to $55.98 a barrel.
Geopolitics remained front and center, not just in the Middle East. Libya's Sharara oil field was shut down on Sunday after an unknown group blocked a pipelinejust a week after a previous shutdown.
The dollar, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index was down 0.2% in Monday dealings, helping dollar-denominated gold prices trade above the session's worst levels. A weaker dollar tends to support commodities priced in the currency lifting their appeal to buyers using other monetary units.
In the Treasury market, the benchmark 10-yr yield settled two basis points lower at 2.36%.
Investors did not receive any economic data on Monday.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content