Economy

Another Choppy Trading Day Looms at Wall Street

Published

7 years ago

29/08/2018

By Investors Hub

The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a roughly flat opening on Wednesday, with stocks likely to extend the lackluster performance seen in the previous session.

Traders may remain reluctant to make significant moves as they keep an eye on renewed trade talks between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Canada rejoined the talks following President Donald Trump?s announcement of a preliminary trade deal with Mexico on Monday.

In remarks to reporters on Tuesday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said ?difficult? concessions by Mexico have set the stage for productive conversations in the coming days.

Freeland said she is due to engage into detailed discussions with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer later today.

Following the strong upward move seen on Monday, stocks turned in a relatively lackluster performance during trading on Tuesday. Despite the choppy trading, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 crept up to new record closing highs.

The major averages eventually ended the day just above the unchanged line. The Dow edged up 14.38 points or 0.1 percent to 26,064.02, the Nasdaq ticked up 12.14 points or 0.2 percent to 8,030.04 and the S&P 500 inched up 0.78 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 2,897.52.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the outlook for the markets following the strength seen in recent sessions.

Traders largely shrugged off a report from the Conference Board showing an unexpected improvement in consumer confidence in the month of August.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index surged up to 133.4 in August from an upwardly revised 127.9 in July. Economists had expected the index to dip to 126.8 from the 127.4 originally reported for the previous month.

With the unexpected increase, the consumer confidence index reached its highest level since hitting 135.8 in October of 2000.

Stocks initially benefited from a continued positive reaction to Monday’s news of the preliminary trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico.

President Donald Trump indicated the trade deal with Mexico is intended to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement but suggested Canada could be excluded from the new pact.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC he remains hopeful a revamped trade deal will get done with Canada but said the U.S. is ready to go forward with the agreement with Mexico.

Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster close by the broader markets.

Telecom stocks saw substantial strength, however, with the NYSE Arca Telecom Index surging up by 1.9 percent. With the jump, the index reached its best closing level in almost four years.

Notable strength also emerged among real estate stocks, as reflected by the 1.1 percent gain posted by the Dow Jones Real Estate Index. The index ended the session at a two-year closing high.

On the other hand, gold stocks came under pressure over the course of the session, dragging the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index down by 2 percent. The weakness among gold stocks came amid a modest pullback by the price of the precious metal.

Tobacco stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day, resulting in a 1.4 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index. The index fell to its lowest closing level in three months.

Economy

NCS Denies Manipulating FX Rates in Import, Export Valuation

Published

2 hours ago

17/02/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has clarified how foreign exchange rates are applied in its import and export valuation, saying it neither determines nor alters rates used in cargo clearance.

The service, in a statement by its National Public Relations Officer, Mr Abdullahi Maiwada, explained that it relies solely on official figures transmitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Mr Maiwada stated that recent public commentary surrounding forex pricing, investor reactions, and customs valuation had prompted NCS to explain the operational framework guiding its digital clearance platform.

“It is worthy of note that the reported exchange rate of N1,451.63/US$ for February 6, 2026 did not originate from the B’Odogwu system.

“That figure was sourced from trade.gov.ng, a legacy public trade information portal that does not reflect live Customs processing data,” it stated.

According to him, all exchange rates used in trade processing are automatically integrated into its Unified Customs Management System, known as B’Odogwu, which it described as the sole official portal for declarations, clearance, and valuation.

“It is important to provide factual clarification on how exchange rates are received, processed, and applied within the NCS digital clearance system, B’Odogwu, a Unified Customs Management System which serves as the sole official platform for Customs declarations, clearance, and valuation,” the statement reads.

The NCS spokesman said the Service receives rates electronically from the apex bank and applies them uniformly across commands nationwide, ensuring transparency, predictability, and compliance with statutory fiscal and monetary policies.

He argued that NCS does not generate or manipulate exchange rates under any circumstances.

Instead, it explained that the platform operates structured data-integration protocols designed to ingest and apply exchange-rate feeds exactly as transmitted.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Nigeria Customs Service does not independently determine, generate, alter, or apply margins to foreign exchange rates used for import and export valuation.

“All exchange rates applied within the B’Odogwu platform are official rates electronically transmitted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which remains the competent authority for exchange rate determination under Nigeria’s monetary framework,” Mr Maiwada added.

Economy

Dangote Gets $400m Chinese Construction Equipment for Refinery Expansion

Published

2 hours ago

17/02/2026

Aduragbemi Omiyale

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

To fast track the expansion of its Lagos-based refinery, Dangote Group has sealed a $400 million construction equipment deal with one of the leading manufacturers of construction machinery in China, XCMG Construction Machinery Company Limited.

A statement from the conglomerate disclosed that beyond refining, the expansion programme will see polypropylene production increase from 900,000 metric tonnes per annum to 2.4 million metric tonnes per annum.

Urea capacity in Nigeria will be tripled from 3 million to 9 million metric tonnes per annum, in addition to the 3 million metric tonnes per annum capacity in Ethiopia, strengthening the Group’s position as the largest urea producer globally.

There are plans to expand the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals from 650,000 barrels per day to 1.4 million barrels per day, positioning it to become the largest refinery in the world.

The Chinese deal will enable Dangote Group to acquire additional wide range of advanced construction equipment to support ongoing and forthcoming projects across refining, petrochemicals, agriculture and large-scale infrastructure development. The new equipment will complement existing assets deployed for the refinery expansion, which is expected to be completed within three years.

Production capacity for Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) will also be increased to 400,000 metric tonnes per annum, positioning the Group as the largest producer in Africa and strengthening supply to the detergent and cleaning agents manufacturing industry. Additional base oil production capacity also forms part of the broader expansion programme.

Dangote Group described the agreement as a strategic investment aimed at deepening its construction footprint and accelerating its ambition to build a $100 billion enterprise by 2030.

“The additional equipment we are acquiring under this partnership will significantly enhance execution across our projects. With this investment, we are positioning ourselves to become the number one construction company in the world,” it stated.

Economy

NASD Unlisted Security Index Crosses 4,000 Basis Points

Published

5 hours ago

17/02/2026

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange further appreciated by 0.67 per cent on Monday, February 16.

During the session, the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) reached another milestone after it chalked up 26.65 points to 4,001.42 points from the preceding session’s 3,974.77 points.

Equally, the market capitalisation added N15.94 billion to end the trading day at N2.394 trillion, in contrast to last Friday’s N2.378 trillion.

Yesterday, the volume of securities rose by 389.6 per cent to 46.2 million units from 9.4 million units, but the value of securities went down by 24.3 per cent to N703.6 million from N703.6 million, and the number of deals dipped 2.2 per cent to 44 deals from the preceding session’s 45 deals.

Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc was the most traded stock by value on a year-to-date basis with 31.4 million units exchanged for N1.8 billion, followed by Resourcery Plc with 1.05 billion units traded for N408.6 million, and Geo-Fluids Plc with 71.2 million units valued at N296.9 million.

Resourcery Plc finished the trading session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 1.05 billion units worth N408.6 million, trailed by Geo-Fluids Plc with 71.2 million units sold for N296.9 million, and CSCS Plc with 31.4 million units sold for N1.8 billion.

During the trading session, there were four price gainers and one price loser, led by CSCS Plc, which went down by 38 Kobo to N80.09 per share versus last Friday’s closing value of N80.47 per share.

However, MRS Oil Plc increased its price by N17.00 to N187.00 per unit from N170.00 per unit, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc gained N5.83 to trade at N71.35 per share compared with the previous session’s N65.52 per unit, Geo-Fluids Plc appreciated by 20 Kobo to N3.50 per share from N3.30 per share, and First Mortgage Bank Plc grew by 7 Kobo to 82 Kobo per unit from N75 Kobo per unit.