Economy
US, China Trade Talks Dominate Wall Street
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a mixed opening on Friday, with stocks likely to continue experiencing choppy trading following the lackluster performance seen in the previous session.
Traders may be reluctant to make significant moves amid uncertainty about the second round of trade talks between the U.S. and China.
Various news outlets said China had offered to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion, although Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang denied the reports.
?This rumor is not true. This, I can confirm,? Lu told reporters. ?I do not know about the offers made by either party.?
He added, ?As we know the consultations are still underway. I am not getting ahead of that. The consultations themselves are constructive.?
After ending Wednesday?s trading mostly higher, stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Thursday. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before closing modestly lower.
The major averages ended the day in negative territory but off their lows of the session. The Dow dipped 54.95 points or 0.2 percent to 24,713.98, the Nasdaq slipped 15.82 points or 0.2 percent to 7,382.47 and the S&P 500 edged down 2.33 points or 0.1 percent to 2,720.13.
The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders expressed some uncertainty about the second round of trade talks between the U.S. and China.
Blaming the trade policies of previous administrations, President Donald Trump expressed some doubt about whether the high-level trade talks with China will be successful.
Trump told reporters he tends to doubt the talks will be successful in remarks during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“The reason I doubt it is because China has become very spoiled,” Trump said. “The European Union has become very spoiled. Other countries have become very spoiled, because they always got 100 percent of whatever they wanted from the United States.”
However, Trump also claimed he would not allow the U.S. to be taken advantage of anymore and sounded more optimistic in later remarks.
“I can only tell you this; we’re going to come out fine with China,” Trump said. “Hopefully, China’s going to be happy. I think we will be happy.”
The comments from Trump come as Chinese officials have traveled to Washington for a second round of trade talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and others.
On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing a continued increase by its index of leading economic indicators.
The Conference Board said its leading economic index rose by 0.4 percent in April, matching the upwardly revised increase in March as well as economist estimates.
Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at the Conference Board, said, “April’s increase and continued uptrend in the U.S. LEI suggest solid growth should continue in the second half of 2018.”
“However, the LEI’s six-month growth rate has recently moderated somewhat, suggesting growth is unlikely to strongly accelerate,” he added.
Before the start of trading, the Labor Department released a report showing a bigger than expected increase in initial jobless claims in the week ended May 12th.
The report said initial jobless claims rose to 222,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 211,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to inch up to 215,000.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve unexpectedly showed a significant acceleration in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of May.
Among individual stocks, shares of J.C. Penney (JCP) moved sharply lower after the department store chain reported a narrower than expected first quarter adjusted loss but cut its full-year earnings guidance.
Retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT) also moved to the downside on the day despite reporting first quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.
On the other hand, shares of Dillard’s (DDS) jumped after the department store operator reported first quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates.
Most of the major sectors showed only modest moves on the day, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets.
Energy stocks saw considerable strength, however, with the sector continuing to perform well even as the price of crude oil pulled back off its early highs.
Reflecting the strength in the energy sector, the NYSE Arca Oil & Gas Index advanced by 1.8 percent, while the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index climbed by 1.7 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Brokerage and housing stocks also saw modest strength on the day, while utilities stocks extended the downward move seen over the past few sessions.
By Dipo Olowookere
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited returned to green territory on Tuesday after it chalked up 0.09 per cent on the back of renewed buying pressure.
The market regained strength yesterday despite profit-taking in the banking space, which caused its index to close lower by 0.69 per cent.
Business Post reports that insurance counter was up by 2.80 per cent, the energy sector appreciated by 2.40 per cent, the commodity segment grew by 1.22 per cent, and the consumer goods industry improved by 0.03 per cent, while the industrial goods counter closed flat.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 144.32 points to 166,256.82 points from 166,112.50 points and the market capitalisation gained N93 billion to finish at N106.436 trillion compared with the N106.343 trillion it settled on Monday.
During the session, investors transacted 795.5 million equities valued at N20.0 billion in 45,410 deals versus the 629.6 million equities worth N14.8 billion executed in 57,858 deals a day earlier, indicating a rise in the trading volume and value by 26.35 per cent and 35.14 per cent apiece and a decline in the number of deals by 21.52 per cent.
Tantalizers was the busiest stock yesterday with a turnover of 87.0 million units valued at N300.9 million, Secure Electronic Technology traded 74.2 million units worth N87.6 million, a new member of the NGX, Zichis Agro Allied Industries, transacted 69.6 million units for N138.5 million, Zenith Bank sold 49.1 million units valued at N3.5 billion, and GTCO exchanged 39.1 million units worth N3.8 billion.
On Tuesday, the market breadth index was positive after Customs Street ended with 39 appreciating shares and 25 depreciating shares, representing a bullish investor sentiment.
Deap Capital, NPF Microfinance Bank, and Red Star Express gained 10.00 per cent each to sell for N5.39, N4.73, and N15.95 apiece, as NCR Nigeria soared by 9.97 per cent to N155.50, and Morison Industries also increased by 9.97 per cent to N6.84.
Conversely, Aluminium Extrusion lost 9.95 per cent to settle at N17.20, Jaiz Bank declined by 9.88 per cent to N7.21, FTN Cocoa shrank by 8.44 per cent to N7.05, UPDC decreased by 8.06 per cent to N5.70, and Caverton slumped by 5.59 per cent to N7.60.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices rose on Tuesday on the temporary suspension of output at Kazakhstan’s oil fields and expectations of firmer global economic growth that could drive fuel demand.
Brent futures chalked up 98 cents or 1.53 per cent to trade at $64.92 a barrel and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude contract for February, which expired on Tuesday, gained 90 cents or 1.51 per cent to close at $60.34 per barrel.
Kazakh oil producer Tengizchevroil said on Monday it had temporarily halted production at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields after an issue affected power distribution systems.
The Chevron-operated joint venture operating the supergiant 700,000 barrels per day Tengiz field onshore Kazakhstan stated that it had suspended production as a “precautionary measure” after a fire broke out at the field’s power distribution systems.
Tengiz could be halted for another seven to 10 days, cutting crude exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).
Market analysts noted that Tengiz is amongst the largest fields in the world and so the outage is certainly disruptive for crude flows.
The oil market also drew support from better-than-expected fourth-quarter Chinese gross domestic product data released on Monday as data showed that the economy of the world’s largest oil producer grew by 5 per cent last year and the country’s refinery throughput in 2025 climbed 4.1 per cent on a year-over-year basis, data showed on Monday. China’s crude oil output also grew 1.5 per cent.
Prices also gained on an upward revision of this year’s global economic growth estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The IMF in its World Economic Outlook update forecast global GDP growth at 3.3 per cent in 2026, up 0.2 percentage point from its last estimate in October. That’s even with 3.3 per cent growth in 2025, which will also beat the October estimate by 0.1 percentage point.
The lender said that globally, inflation was forecast to continue to decline, from 4.1 per cent in 2025 to 3.8 per cent in 2026 and 3.4 per cent in 2027.
Investors continued to monitor US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against European states that oppose his push to acquire Greenland.
The American president said he would impose additional 10 per cent levies from February 1 on goods imported from EU members Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, as well as Britain and Norway, rising to 25 per cent on June 1 if no deal on Greenland was reached.
President Trump’s tariff threats have a negative bearing on crude prices as the levies could lead to lower global economic growth and therefore reduce oil demand growth.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, has identified the recovery of shut-in oil and gas volumes as a central strategy for optimising Nigeria’s upstream production and stabilising revenue.
She said the oil and gas sector remains critical to Nigeria’s economic stability, stressing that effective regulation must be anchored on a strong, efficiently run upstream industry.
According to Mrs Eyesan, the commission’s agenda for the sector under her leadership, is built on three core pillars, with production and revenue optimisation taking priority.
“Our agenda rests on optimising production and revenue by recovering shut-in volumes,” she said. Shut-in volumes refer to the amount of oil or gas that is currently capable of being produced but is not being extracted because the wells have been deliberately closed off.
The NUPRC head explained that unlocking idle production requires closer collaboration between regulators and operators, supported by transparent and accountable industry practices.
Mrs Eyesan added that regulatory efficiency is another key enabler of production optimisation, noting that speed and predictability in approvals are essential to sustaining upstream operations.
“We are focused on ensuring regulatory speed and predictability through clear rules and digital processes,” she said.
The NUPRC chief further said that optimising output must go hand-in-hand with safe and sustainable operations, including effective governance of assets and improved host community outcomes.
“Strengthening safe, governed and sustainable operations, including host community outcomes and decarbonisation, is part of our broader objective,” Mrs Eyesan said.
She noted that a stable regulatory environment, combined with production recovery efforts, would support industry confidence and improve Nigeria’s ability to maximise value from its hydrocarbon resources.
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