Economy
US Stocks May Lack Direction Ahead of Yellen Testimony
By Investors Hub
Major U.S. index futures are pointing to a mixed opening on Monday, with the Dow futures up by down by 28 points and the Nasdaq futures up by 4.5 points.
Traders may be reluctant to make any significant moves ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s semiannual testimony before Congress.
Yellen is due to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.
The comments from the Fed Chief could have a significant impact on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the central bank’s monetary policy meeting later this month.
After showing a significant move to the downside last Thursday, stocks regained some ground during trading on Friday. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rebounded after ending Thursday’s trading at their lowest closing levels in over a month.
The major averages finished the day firmly in positive territory. The Dow climbed 94.30 points or 0.4 percent to 21,414.34, the Nasdaq jumped 63.61 points or 0.1 percent to 6,153.08 and the S&P 500 advanced 15.43 points or 0.6 percent to 2,425.18.
For the holiday-interrupted week, the major averages moved modestly higher. While the Dow rose by 0.3 percent, the Nasdaq edged up by 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 inched up by 0.1 percent.
The rebound on Wall Street came following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing much stronger than expected job growth in the month of June.
The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 222,000 jobs in June following an upwardly revised increase of 152,000 jobs in May.
Economists had expected employment to climb by 179,000 jobs compared to the addition of 138,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the stronger than expected job growth, the unemployment rate inched up to 4.4 percent in June from 4.3 percent in May. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to hold steady.
The Labor Department also said average hourly employee earnings rose by 0.2 percent to $26.25. Average hourly earnings in June were up by 2.5 percent year-over-year.
“This was a strong jobs report, with a better-than-expected payroll rise augmented by a solid upward revision,” said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial.
He added, “Still, it should not add to the already considerable fire under the FOMC because wage pressures are nowhere to be seen, and labor slack relaxed unexpectedly.”
The Federal Reserve is scheduled to make its next decision on interest rates following a two-day meeting later this month.
Traders also kept an eye on developments out of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, where President Donald Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters Trump and Putin had a “very robust and lengthy exchange” about alleged Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election.
Tillerson said Trump and Putin also reached an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria, which he called the first indication the countries can work together to curb the violence in the war-torn country.
Airline stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading session, driving the NYSE Arca Airline Index up by 2.6 percent. With the jump, the index reached its best closing level in over fifteen years.
SkyWest (SKYW), Ryanair (RYAAY) and Alaska Air (ALK) turned in some of the sector’s best performances in late-day trading.
Considerable strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 gain posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. The index climbed further off the nearly two-month closing low set on Monday.
Networking also turned in a strong performance, resulting in a 1.4 percent advance by the NYSE Arca Networking Index. The gain by the index came after it ended the previous session at its lowest closing level in over a month.
Internet, housing, and software stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while gold stocks came under pressure amid a slump by the price of the precious metal.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is seeking a reduction in import duty exemptions, which rose to N34 trillion, limiting its ability to increase its revenue generation threshold.
The Comptroller-General of the Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed that the value of import duty exemption certificate approvals increased to that level in 2025, describing the policy as one of the major factors restricting its revenue generation.
At an investigative session of the Senate Committee on Finance with revenue-generating agencies in Abuja on Monday, Mr Adeniyi explained that government fiscal policies have continued to impact the revenue-generating capacity of the Customs Service, both positively and negatively.
“The NCS would have generated significantly higher revenue over the years if not for government-approved import duty waivers and other external factors affecting collections,” he said.
He added that the Import Duty Exemption Certificate scheme, introduced in March 2020, accounted for about N34 trillion in approvals in 2025, with nearly 60 per cent covering duty-free importation of military hardware due to Nigeria’s prevailing security challenges.
Other government-backed duty waivers, he noted, covered the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), electric and hybrid vehicles, healthcare equipment and medical supplies, industrial machinery and manufacturing inputs, as well as food import intervention programmes.
While acknowledging the impact of the waivers on Customs revenue, Mr Adeniyi argued that fiscal policy should not be assessed solely on the basis of revenue generation but also on its broader economic and social objectives.
He, however, urged the federal government to establish stronger monitoring mechanisms to ensure beneficiaries of duty waivers deliver the intended economic outcomes, including lower consumer prices, increased local production and improved healthcare access.
The committee also expressed displeasure over the absence of several heads of government agencies invited to the hearing, including the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), and the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Mr Sani Musa, warned that the affected chief executives must appear at the committee’s next sitting or face severe sanctions under the Senate’s rules.
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By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange rose by 0.40 per cent on Monday, July 13, buoyed by buying interest in 11 Plc, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc and UBN Property Plc, which offset the profit-taking in Food Concepts Plc, the parent company of Chicken Republic.
11 Plc gained N20.69 to end at N227.64 per share compared with last Friday’s price of N206.95 per share, CSCS Plc grew by N1.83 to N91.48 per unit from N89.65 per unit, and UBN Property Plc added 1 Kobo to sell at N1.81 per share versus N1.80 per share.
On the flip side, Food Concepts Plc depreciated by 24 Kobo to close at N2.45 per unit, in contrast to the preceding session’s N2.69 per unit.
As a result, the market capitalisation increased by N9.2 billion to N2.587 trillion from N2.578 trillion, and the NASD Security Index (NSI) improved by 15.33 points to 4,311.67 points from 4,296.34 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities traded by investors surged by 615.9 per cent to 9.1 million units from the previous 1.3 million units, and the value of securities rose by 997.1 per cent to N320.4 million from the preceding session’s N29.2 million, while the number of deals decreased by 12.5 per cent to 28 deals from last Friday’s 32 deals.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc remained the most active stock by value on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units valued at N8.4 billion, followed by Infrastructure Credit Guarantee (Infracredit) Plc with 2.3 billion units worth N6.5 billion, and CSCS Plc with 73.9 million units exchanged for N5.2 billion.
GNI Plc also closed the session as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis, with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by Infracredit Plc with 2.3 billion units traded for N6.5 billion, and Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units transacted for N415.7 million.
