Economy
Profit Taking May Pullback Wall Street
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a lower opening on Thursday, with stocks likely to give back ground after trending higher over the past several sessions.
Profit taking may contribute to initial weakness on Wall Street, as traders cash in on the recent strength in the markets that has lifted the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 to record highs.
Uncertainty about trade talks between the U.S., Canada and Mexico may also weigh on the markets along with concerns about the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China.
The U.S. is considering imposing tariffs on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods as early as next months, and the response from China may have significant consequences for the global economy and currencies.
Extending the upward trend seen in recent sessions, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 climbed to new record closing highs, while the Dow reached its best closing level in nearly seven months.
The major averages all closed in positive territory, although the Nasdaq outperformed its counterparts. While the Nasdaq jumped 79.65 points or 1 percent to 8,109.69, the S&P 500 climbed 16.52 points or 0.6 percent to 2,914.04 and the S&P 500 rose 60.55 points or 0.2 percent to 26,124.57.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq benefited from notable gains by Amazon (AMZN) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), which surged up by 3.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively, after Morgan Stanley raised its price targets for both stocks.
The continued strength on Wall Street also reflected optimism about 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 was due to engage into detailed discussions with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday.
On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing economic activity grew by more than initially estimated in the second quarter.
The report said real gross domestic product climbed by 4.2 percent in the second quarter compared to the previously reported 4.1 increase. The pace of growth had been expected to be downwardly revised to 4.0 percent.
With the unexpected upward revision, the GDP growth in the second quarter reflects a significant acceleration from the 2.2 percent advance in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed an unexpected pullback in pending home sales in the month of July.
NAR said its pending home sales index dropped by 0.7 percent to 106.2 in July after jumping by 1.0 percent to an upwardly revised 107.0 in June. Economists had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.3 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.
Biotechnology stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, extending a recent upward trend. The NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index climbed by 1.3 percent to a new record closing high.
Significant strength also emerged among retail stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent gain posted by the Dow Jones Retail Index. The index also ended the session at its best closing level on record.
Energy stocks also saw considerable strength, moving higher along with the price of crude oil. Crude for October delivery jumped following the release of a report showing a bigger than expected weekly drop in crude oil inventories.
On the other hand, tobacco stocks extended a recent move to the downside, dragging the NYSE Arca Tobacco Index down by 1.4 percent to a three-month closing low.
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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