Economy
US Stocks Open Higher on Easing Trade Concerns
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a modestly higher opening on Tuesday, with stocks likely to attempt another rebound after turning lower over the course of the previous session.
The upward momentum on Wall Street comes after the downturn seen on Monday dragged the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 down to six-month closing lows and the Dow fell to its lowest closing level in well over three months.
Traders may once again look to pick up stocks at reduced levels after bargain hunting efforts in the previous session were thwarted by renewed concerns about the trade war between the U.S. and China.
President Donald Trump?s prediction the U.S. will reach a ?great deal? with China on trade may offset some of the concerns, although the president warned of more tariffs if a deal is not possible.
?I think that we will make a great deal with China and it has to be great, because they?ve drained our country,? Trump told Laura Ingraham of Fox News on Monday.
After failing to sustain an early move to the upside, stocks came under pressure over the course of the trading session on Monday. The major averages pulled back well off their best levels of the day and into negative territory.
While the major averages regained some ground going into the close, they remained firmly in the red. The Dow slumped 245.39 points or 1 percent to 24,442.92, the Nasdaq tumbled 116.92 points or 1.6 percent to 7,050.29 and the S&P 500 fell 17.44 points or 0.7 percent to 2,641.25.
The sharp pullback by stocks came after report from Bloomberg said the U.S. is preparing to announce tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports if next month’s talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping fail to ease the trade war.
Citing three people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the announcement of the new round of tariffs could come by early December
Two of the people told Bloomberg the new tariffs would apply to Chinese imports that aren’t already covered by previous rounds of tariffs, or approximately $257 billion worth of goods.
The report from Bloomberg comes as Trump and Xi are expected to meet on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beginning November 30th.
Shortly before imposing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods in September, Trump threatened to levy duties on nearly everything China exports to the U.S.
The early strength on Wall Street came as some traders picked up stocks at reduced levels following the steep drop seen last week, extending the see-saw performance seen over the past few sessions.
Auto stocks helped to lead the way higher after a report from Bloomberg said China is considering cutting a tax on car purchases in half.
The proposal to lower the purchase tax to 5 percent from 10 percent comes as Chinese car sales are on track for their first annual drop in two decades amid the U.S.-China trade war.
News on the merger-and-acquisition front also generated some buying interest, with IBM Corp. (IBM) agreeing to acquire Linux software distributor Red Hat (RHT) for $33 billion in cash.
Buying interest waned over the course of the morning, however, with political uncertainty in Europe limiting the upside for the markets.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Commerce Department showing personal income rose by slightly less than expected in the month of September.
Oil service stocks bucked the early uptrend by the markets and saw further downside as the day progressed. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index plummeted by 4.3 percent to its lowest closing level in well over nine years.
Weatherford (WFT) led the oil service sector lower after reporting a narrower than expected third quarter loss but revenues that came in below estimates.
The sell-off by oil service stocks reflected weakness throughout the energy sector, as the price of crude oil fell sharply in electronic trading.
Significant weakness also emerged among retail stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent slump by the Dow Jones Retail Index. With the drop, the index fell to a nearly five-month closing low.
Computer hardware, biotechnology, and networking stocks also came under pressure over the course of the session, while interest rate-sensitive utilities, banking, and commercial real estate stocks ended the day on the upside.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Energy stocks influenced the 4.76 per cent loss recorded by the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange on Friday, December 5.
The culprits were the duo of 11 Plc and Nipco Plc,with the former shedding N32.17 to end at N291.83 per share compared with the previous day’s N324.00 per share, and the latter down by N21.00 to sell at N195.00 per unit versus the previous session’s N216.00 per unit.
Consequently, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) slumped by 170.16 points to 3,401.37 points from 3,571.53 points and the market capitalisation lost N101.81 billion to close at N2.035 billion from the N2.136 trillion quoted in the preceding session.
The OTC securities exchange suffered the decline yesterday despite the share prices of three companies closing green.
Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc was up by N1.80 to close at N39.80 per share compared with Thursday’s price of N38.00 per share, Air Liquide Plc appreciated by N1.09 to N11.99 per unit from N10.90 per unit, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc grew by 78 Kobo to N56.57 per share from N55.79 per share.
During the session, the volume of transactions rose by 6,885.3 per cent to 18.2 million units from 4.3 million units, the value of transactions ballooned by 10,301.7 per cent to N389.7 million from N347.2 million, but the number of deals declined by 29.7 per cent to 26 deals from 37 deals.
Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc ended the day as the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units worth N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 170.4 million units valued at N8.0 billion, and Air Liquide Plc with 507.5 million units worth N4.2 billion.
InfraCredit Plc also finished the day as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units transacted for N16.4 billion, followed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.2 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units worth N524.9 million.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Naira depreciated further against the US Dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX) on Friday, December 5, as FX demand pressure mounts.
The Nigerian currency lost N2.60 or 0.18 per cent against the greenback to close at N1,450.43/$1 compared with the previous day’s N1,447.83/$1.
Equally, the domestic currency declined against the Pound Sterling in the official forex market during the session by N4.48 to trade at N1,935.45/£1, in contrast to Thursday’s closing price of N1,930.97/£1 and shrank against the Euro by 43 Kobo to end at N1,689.17/€1 versus the preceding session’s rate of N1,688.74/€1.
Similarly, the local currency performed badly against the US Dollar at the GTBank FX counter by N2 to close at N1,455/$1 versus Thursday’s N1,453/$1 but traded flat at the parallel market at N14.65/$1.
As the country gets into the festive period, pressure mounted on the local currency reflecting higher foreign payments and lower FX inflows.
However, there are expectations that the Nigerian currency will be stable, supported by interventions by to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the face of steady dollar Demand and inflows from Detty December festivities that will give the Naira a boost after it depreciated mildly last month.
Traders cited by Reuters expect that the Naira will trade within a band of N1,443-N1,450/$1 next week, buoyed by improved FX interventions by the apex bank.
As for the crypto market, it was down yesterday due to profit-taking associated with year-end trading. However, the December 1-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation by the University of Michigan fell to 4.1 per cent from 4.5 per cent previously and 4.5 per cent expected. The 5-Year Consumer Inflation Expectation fell to 3.2 per cent from 3.4 per cent previously and 3.4 per cent expected.
With the dearth of official economic data of late, these private surveys have taken on a new level of significance and the market banks of them to make decisions.
Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 5.7 per cent to $0.4142, Dogecoin (DOGE) slid by 5.1 per cent to $0.1394, Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 3.9 per cent to $3,039.75, Solana (SOL) declined by 3.8 per cent to $133.24, and Litecoin (LTC) fell by 3.7 per cent to $80.59.
Further, Bitcoin (BTC) went down by 2.6 per cent to sell at $89,683.72, Binance Coin (BNB) slumped by 2.2 per cent to $883.59, and Ripple (XRP) shrank by 2.1 per cent to $2.04, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) remained unchanged at $1.00 each.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The oil market was up on Friday on increasing expectations the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week, which could boost economic growth and energy demand.
Brent futures rose by 49 cents or 0.8 per cent to $63.75 per barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures expanded by 41 cents or 0.7 per cent to $60.08 per barrel.
Investors digested a US inflation report and recalibrated expectations for the Federal Reserve to reduce rates at its December 9-10 meeting.
US consumer spending increased moderately in September after three straight months of solid gains, suggesting a loss of momentum in the economy at the end of the third quarter as a lackluster labor market and the rising cost of living curbed demand.
Traders have been pricing in an 87 per cent chance that the US central bank will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points next week, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
Investors also focused on news from Russia and Venezuela to determine whether oil supplies from the two sanctioned members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) will increase or decrease in the future.
The failure of US talks in Moscow to achieve any significant breakthrough over the war in Ukraine has helped to boost oil prices so far this week.
A loss of Venezuelan oil production in case of a US military intervention will materially impact global benchmark prices as the market will have to replace Venezuela’s heavy crude.
Venezuela is estimated to pump about 1.1 million barrels per day of crude oil at present, so if the US-Venezuela tension escalation into an invasion in the South American country, this volume of crude would be at risk.
Reuters reported that the Group of Seven countries and the European Union are in talks to replace a price cap on Russian oil exports with a full maritime services ban in a bid to reduce the oil revenue that helps finance Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Any deal that could lift sanctions on Russia, the world’s second-biggest crude producer after the US, could increase the amount of oil available to global markets, weakening prices.
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