Economy
Wall Street May React Negatively to Earnings News
By Investors Hub
Major US index futures are pointing to a lower opening on Thursday following the upward trend seen over the past several sessions.
Profit taking may contribute to early weakness on Wall Street after the major averages once again climbed to new record closing highs in the previous session.
A negative reaction to the latest batch of earnings news may inspire traders to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.
While a jump by shares of IBM (IBM) contributed to a notable advance by the Dow, the broader Nasdaq and S&P 500 spent much of the trading day on Wednesday lingering near the unchanged line. The major averages still all reached new record closing highs.
The major averages all closed in positive territory, although the Dow outperformed its counterparts by a wide margin. The Dow climbed 160.16 points or 0.7 percent to 23,157.60, while the Nasdaq inched up 0.56 points or less than 0.1 percent to 6,624.22 and the S&P 500 ticked up 1.90 points or 0.1 percent to 2,561.26.
IBM surged up by 8.9 percent after the tech giant reported third quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
The advance by the Dow also reflected a notable rebound by shares of Goldman Sachs (GS), which climbed by 2.5 percent.
The lack of direction shown by the broader markets came as traders seemed reluctant to make significant moves following the recent upward trend on Wall Street.
In economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing a much bigger than expected slump in housing starts in the month of September.
The Commerce Department said housing starts plunged by 4.7 percent to an annual rate of 1.127 million in September from the revised August estimate of 1.183 million. Housing starts had been expected to edge down by 0.5 percent.
With the Hurricanes Harvey and Irma disrupting single-family home construction in the South, housing starts slumped to their lowest level since September of 2016.
Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, also tumbled by 4.5 percent to an annual rate of 1.215 million in September from a revised 1.272 million in August. Economists had expected building permits to drop by 2.9 percent.
Later in the day, the Federal Reserve released its Beige Book, a compilation of anecdotal evidence on economic conditions in the twelve Fed districts.
The Beige Book said reports from the twelve districts indicated that economic activity increased in September through early October, with the pace of growth split between modest and moderate.
The Fed noted the Richmond, Atlanta, and Dallas Districts reported major disruptions from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in some areas and sectors.
Employment growth was described as modest on balance, while the Fed said price pressures also remained modest since the previous report.
Reflecting the lackluster performance by the broader markets, most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves.
Trucking stocks showed a significant move to the upside, however, with the Dow Jones Trucking Index climbing by 1.6 percent. The index rebounded after closing lower for the three straight sessions.
YRC Worldwide (YRCW), Ryder (R), and Knight-Swift Transportation (KNX) turned in some of the trucking sector’s best performances.
Electronic storage and financial stocks also saw some strength on the day, although buying interest was relatively subdued.
On the other hand, oil service stocks came under pressure, dragging the Philadelphia Oil Service Index down by 2.1 percent. With the drop, the index fell to its lowest closing level in almost a month.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.
The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.
The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.
For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.
On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.
The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.
OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.
In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.
These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.
Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.
They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.
This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).
Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.
Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.
As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).
The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.
In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.
The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.
“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.
“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.
“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.
“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.
As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.
But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.
The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.
During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.
However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.
Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.
Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.
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