Economy
Choppy Trading on Wall Street Amid Mixed Economic, Geopolitical News
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are currently pointing to a roughly flat opening on Thursday, with stocks likely to continue to experience choppy trading.
Traders may be reluctant to make significant moves as they weigh better than expected U.S. economic data against disappointing news out of the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The futures recovered from earlier weakness following the release of a report from the Commerce Department showing U.S. economic growth slowed by less than expected in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Meanwhile, traders are also digesting news that the Trump-Kim summit ended abruptly without an agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Trump told reporters the North Korean dictator wanted the U.S. to lift all sanctions without having to give up all of his weapons of mass destruction.
?Basically, they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that,? Trump said. ?They were willing to de-nuke a large portion of the areas that we wanted, but we couldn’t give up all of the sanctions for that.?
?So we continue to work and we’ll see, but we had to walk away from that particular suggestion,? he added. ?We had to walk away from that.?
The president noted that the two sides will continue to work toward an agreement, although the lack of a deal at the summit may add to recent uncertainty on Wall Street.
Stocks once again recovered from an early move to the downside on Wednesday but showed a lack of direction over the remainder of the session.
The major averages spent the afternoon lingering near the unchanged line before closing mixed. While the Nasdaq inched up 5.21 points or 0.1 percent to 7,554.51, the Dow fell 72.82 points or 0.3 percent to 25,985.16 and the S&P 500 edged down 1.52 points or 0.1 percent to 2,792.38.
The early weakness on Wall Street came as comments from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer partly offset recent optimism about the U.S.-China trade talks.
Lighthizer, who is described as “hawkish” on trade, told members of the House Ways and Means Committee that China needs to go beyond pledging to buy more U.S. goods to reach to a long-term trade agreement.
“We can compete with anyone in the world, but we must have rule, enforced rules, that make sure market outcomes and not state capitalism and technology theft determine winners,” Lighthizer said.
The reaction to Lighthizer’s remarks reflected the lingering uncertainty about a potential U.S.-China trade deal even after President Donald Trump decided to postpone an increase in tariffs on Chinese imports.
Selling pressure waned as the day progressed, however, as traders kept an eye on Trump’s second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, looking for more concrete signs of progress toward the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
“Kim Jong Un and I will try very hard to work something out on Denuclearization & then making North Korea an Economic Powerhouse,” Trump said on Twitter this morning. “I believe that China, Russia, Japan & South Korea will be very helpful!”
On the U.S. economic front, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing pending home sales rebounded by much more than anticipated in the month of January.
NAR said its pending home sales index spiked by 4.6 percent to 103.2 in January after tumbling by 2.3 percent to a downwardly revised 98.7 in December. Economists had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.4 percent.
A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.
Meanwhile, a government shutdown-delayed report released by the Commerce Department showed new orders for manufactured goods rose by much less than anticipated in the month of December.
The Commerce Department said factory orders inched up by 0.1 percent in December after falling by a revised 0.5 percent in November. Economists had expected orders to climb by 0.5 percent.
Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.
Gold stocks showed a significant move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index plunging by 1.9 percent. The weakness among gold stocks came amid a decrease by the price of the precious metal.
Considerable weakness was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent drop by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
On the other hand,
biotechnology stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the
session, driving the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index up by 2.4 percent.
The index jumped to its best closing level in over four months.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Senate has passed a bill to repeal and re-enact the law establishing the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), paving the way for the regulatory agency to be renamed the Insurance Regulatory Commission (IRC).
The legislation, titled the Insurance Regulatory Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2026, was passed after the Senate considered and adopted the report of its committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Adetokunbo Abiru, the senator representing Lagos East, who presented the report, stated that the proposed legislation was necessary because the existing National Insurance Commission Act of 1997 had become outdated and no longer reflected the realities of Nigeria’s evolving insurance industry or global regulatory standards.
According to the Senate, the decision to change the Commission’s name was informed by the need to eliminate confusion associated with the existing designation and to better reflect the institution’s regulatory mandate within Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The bill also provides legal protection for the commission and its officers against adverse claims arising from the lawful execution of their statutory duties.
However, he noted that the commission’s enabling law had become obsolete, exposing significant regulatory gaps that required urgent legislative intervention.
‘The current National Insurance Commission Act 1997 is outdated and does not adequately address the emerging economic growth, needs and development of the insurance business,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the new legislation seeks to strengthen the independence of the commission by empowering it to make regulatory decisions without undue influence in the country’s insurance sector.
According to him, the bill also enhances the commission’s authority to exchange information and collaborate with domestic and international regulatory bodies, issue regulations, guidelines, standards and directives on insurance-related matters, and intervene more effectively in financially distressed insurance companies to protect policyholders and preserve financial stability.
This marks yet another move to strengthen the country’s insurance sector following the enactment of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) of 2025 and the industry-wide recapitalisation exercise, which will wrap up by July 31.
By Adedapo Adesanya
About 143 companies that successfully passed the technical and prequalification stages of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission’s (NUPRC) 2025 Licensing Round will, today, compete for 50 oil and gas blocks at the commercial bid conference in Abuja, the final stage in the allocation process for the assets.
The commission said only the prequalified companies have been invited to attend the event, which will hold at the Conference Centre of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, stressing that participation is strictly by invitation.
The commercial bid conference will determine the successful bidders for oil and gas assets located across Nigeria’s producing and frontier basins.
The 50 blocks comprise 16 onshore blocks and 18 shallow water blocks in the Niger Delta, one deep offshore block, three onshore blocks in the Benin Basin, four in the Anambra Basin, four in the Chad Basin, and four in the Benue Trough.
According to the commission, the winning bids will be determined through a transparent evaluation process based on clearly defined commercial parameters. These include the signature bonus offered by bidders, the proposed work programme commitment and the level of performance security provided. The final selection will be based on a weighted technical and commercial score.
The licensing round is being conducted under the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, which requires a transparent and competitive process for the award of petroleum assets.
NUPRC had announced the commencement of the 2025 Licensing Round on November 11, 2025, before opening the online bid portal on December 1, 2025, to enable interested companies to register and participate in the exercise.
To ensure prospective investors fully understood the requirements, the commission organised a pre-bid conference on January 14, 2026, at Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos. The event provided detailed explanations on the licensing guidelines and bidding procedures to registered participants and other stakeholders.
Registration and submission of prequalification documents closed on February 27, 2026, while the prequalification evaluation was completed on March 16, 2026.
NUPRC disclosed that 286 companies initially submitted applications for prequalification.
Following the evaluation process, 196 companies were cleared to participate in the technical and commercial bid stages.
The prequalified 143 companies eventually submitted a total of 200 bids for the available oil and gas blocks. These companies are now set to compete at the commercial bid conference, where the financial offers will be opened and evaluated to determine the eventual winners.
The licensing round is expected to attract fresh investment into Nigeria’s upstream petroleum sector, boost exploration activities across both producing and frontier basins, increase crude oil and gas reserves, and support the country’s drive to grow production and government revenue.
It also underscores the regulator’s commitment to implementing a transparent, competitive and investor-friendly licensing regime under the Petroleum Industry Act.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has retained all key monetary policy parameters following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on July 21, 2026, on Tuesday, maintaining its tight monetary policy stance to curb inflation and support macroeconomic stability.
According to the Governor of the apex bank, Mr Yemi Cardoso, who chaired the committee, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which serves as the benchmark interest rate, remains at 26.50 per cent. The MPC also retained the asymmetric corridor around the MPR at +50 basis points and -450 basis points.
In addition, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks was left unchanged at 45.00 per cent, while the CRR for merchant banks remains at 16.00 per cent. The committee also retained the CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (Non-TSA) public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent, with the liquidity ratio at 30.00 per cent.
The decision reflects the apex bank’s continued commitment to containing inflationary pressures through a restrictive monetary policy while safeguarding the resilience of Nigeria’s financial system amid ongoing macroeconomic adjustments.
By keeping all policy tools unchanged, the MPC signalled its intention to continue managing excess liquidity in the banking sector and maintain stability in financial markets.
The move is also expected to provide greater policy certainty for investors and businesses monitoring the country’s monetary policy direction.
The latest decision also means borrowing costs are likely to remain elevated in the near term as the central bank continues to prioritise price stability over monetary easing.
Analysts had expected the CBN committee to retain the rate after Nigeria’s headline inflation came in at 15.91 per cent as of June 2026, marking a slight decline from 15.93 per cent in May.
However, even as overall price growth has moderated significantly compared to previous periods, food inflation remains a persistent challenge, accelerating to 17.52 per cent in June.
