Economy
US Stocks Open Higher on Easing Trade Concerns
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a modestly higher opening on Tuesday, with stocks likely to attempt another rebound after turning lower over the course of the previous session.
The upward momentum on Wall Street comes after the downturn seen on Monday dragged the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 down to six-month closing lows and the Dow fell to its lowest closing level in well over three months.
Traders may once again look to pick up stocks at reduced levels after bargain hunting efforts in the previous session were thwarted by renewed concerns about the trade war between the U.S. and China.
President Donald Trump?s prediction the U.S. will reach a ?great deal? with China on trade may offset some of the concerns, although the president warned of more tariffs if a deal is not possible.
?I think that we will make a great deal with China and it has to be great, because they?ve drained our country,? Trump told Laura Ingraham of Fox News on Monday.
After failing to sustain an early move to the upside, stocks came under pressure over the course of the trading session on Monday. The major averages pulled back well off their best levels of the day and into negative territory.
While the major averages regained some ground going into the close, they remained firmly in the red. The Dow slumped 245.39 points or 1 percent to 24,442.92, the Nasdaq tumbled 116.92 points or 1.6 percent to 7,050.29 and the S&P 500 fell 17.44 points or 0.7 percent to 2,641.25.
The sharp pullback by stocks came after report from Bloomberg said the U.S. is preparing to announce tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports if next month’s talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping fail to ease the trade war.
Citing three people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the announcement of the new round of tariffs could come by early December
Two of the people told Bloomberg the new tariffs would apply to Chinese imports that aren’t already covered by previous rounds of tariffs, or approximately $257 billion worth of goods.
The report from Bloomberg comes as Trump and Xi are expected to meet on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, beginning November 30th.
Shortly before imposing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods in September, Trump threatened to levy duties on nearly everything China exports to the U.S.
The early strength on Wall Street came as some traders picked up stocks at reduced levels following the steep drop seen last week, extending the see-saw performance seen over the past few sessions.
Auto stocks helped to lead the way higher after a report from Bloomberg said China is considering cutting a tax on car purchases in half.
The proposal to lower the purchase tax to 5 percent from 10 percent comes as Chinese car sales are on track for their first annual drop in two decades amid the U.S.-China trade war.
News on the merger-and-acquisition front also generated some buying interest, with IBM Corp. (IBM) agreeing to acquire Linux software distributor Red Hat (RHT) for $33 billion in cash.
Buying interest waned over the course of the morning, however, with political uncertainty in Europe limiting the upside for the markets.
Meanwhile, traders largely shrugged off a report from the Commerce Department showing personal income rose by slightly less than expected in the month of September.
Oil service stocks bucked the early uptrend by the markets and saw further downside as the day progressed. The Philadelphia Oil Service Index plummeted by 4.3 percent to its lowest closing level in well over nine years.
Weatherford (WFT) led the oil service sector lower after reporting a narrower than expected third quarter loss but revenues that came in below estimates.
The sell-off by oil service stocks reflected weakness throughout the energy sector, as the price of crude oil fell sharply in electronic trading.
Significant weakness also emerged among retail stocks, as reflected by the 1.9 percent slump by the Dow Jones Retail Index. With the drop, the index fell to a nearly five-month closing low.
Computer hardware, biotechnology, and networking stocks also came under pressure over the course of the session, while interest rate-sensitive utilities, banking, and commercial real estate stocks ended the day on the upside.
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu on Friday presented a budget proposal of N58.47 trillion for the 2026 fiscal year titled Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity to a joint session of the National Assembly, with capital recurrent (non‑debt) expenditure standing at 15.25 trillion, and the capital expenditure at N26.08 trillion, while the crude oil benchmark was pegged at $64.85 per barrel.
Business Post reports that the Brent crude grade currently trades around $60 per barrel. It is also expected to trade at that level or lower next year over worries about oil glut.
At the budget presentation today, Mr Tinubu said the expected total revenue for the year is N34.33 trillion, and the proposal is anchored on a crude oil production of 1.84 million barrels per day, and an exchange rate of N1,400 to the US Dollar.
In terms of sectoral allocation, defence and security took the lion’s share with N5.41 trillion, followed by infrastructure at N3.56 trillion, education received N3.52 trillion, while health received N2.48 trillion.
Addressing the lawmakers, the President described the budget proposal as not “just accounting lines”.
“They are a statement of national priorities,” the president told the gathering. “We remain firmly committed to fiscal sustainability, debt transparency, and value‑for‑money spending.”
The presentation came at a time of heightened insecurity in parts of the country, with mass abductions and other crimes making headlines.
Outlining his government’s plan to address the challenge, President Tinubu reminded the gathering that security “remains the foundation of development”.
He said some of the measures in place to tame insecurity include the modernisation of the Armed Forces, intelligence‑driven policing and joint operations, border security, and technology‑enabled surveillance and community‑based peacebuilding and conflict prevention.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes—because security spending must deliver security results,” the president said.
“To secure our country, our priority will remain on increasing the fighting capability of our armed forces and other security agencies by boosting personnel and procuring cutting-edge platforms and other hardware,” he added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The deadline for the recapitalisation of the Nigerian pension industry has been extended by six months to June 2027 from December 2026.
This extension was approved by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the agency, which regulates the sector in the country.
Addressing newsmen on Thursday in Lagos, the Director-General of PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, explained that the shift in deadline was to give operators more time to boost the capital base, dismissing speculations that the exercise had been suspended.
“The recapitalisation has not been suspended. We have communicated the requirements to the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), and we expect every operator to be compliant by June 2027. Anyone who is not compliant by then will lose their licence,” Ms Oloworaran told journalists.
She added that, “From a regulatory standpoint, our major challenge is ensuring compliance. We are working with ICPC, labour and the TUC to ensure employers remit pension contributions for their employees.”
The DG noted that engagements with industry operators indicated broad acceptance of the policy, with many PFAs already taking steps to raise additional capital or explore mergers and acquisitions.
“You may see some mergers and acquisitions in the industry, but what is clear is that the recapitalisation exercise is on track and the industry agrees with us,” she stated.
PenCom wants the PFAs to increase their capital base and has created three categories, with the first consists operators with Assets Under Management of N500 billion and above. They are expected to have a minimum capital of N20 billion and one per cent of AUM above N500 billion.
The second category has PFAs with AUM below N500 billion, which must have at least N20 billion as capital base.
The last segment comprises special-purpose PFAs such as NPF Pensions Limited, whose minimum capital was pegged at N30 billion, and the Nigerian University Pension Management Company Limited, whose minimum capital was fixed at N20 billion.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Three securities weakened the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange by 0.68 per cent on Thursday, December 18.
According to data, Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc led the losers’ group after it slipped by N2.87 to N36.78 per share from N39.65 per share, Golden Capital Plc depreciated by 77 Kobo to end at N6.98 per unit versus the previous day’s N7.77 per unit, and FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc dropped 19 Kobo to sell at N60.00 per share versus Wednesday’s closing price of N60.19 per share.
At the close of business, the market capitalisation lost N16.81 billion to finish at N2.147 billion compared with the preceding session’s N2.164 trillion, and the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) declined by 24.76 points to 3,589.88 points from 3,614.64 points.
Yesterday, the volume of securities bought and sold increased by 49.3 per cent to 30.5 million units from 20.4 million units, the value of securities surged by 211.8 per cent to N225.1 million from N72.2 million, and the number of deals jumped by 33.3 per cent to 28 deals from 21 deals.
Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (InfraCredit) Plc remained the most traded stock by value with a year-to-date sale of 5.8 billion units valued at N16.4 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 178.9 million units transacted for N9.5 billion, and MRS Oil Plc with 36.1 million units worth N4.9 billion.
Similarly, InfraCredit Plc ended as the most traded stock by volume on a year-to-date basis with 5.8 billion units traded for N16.4 billion, trailed by Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc with 1.2 billion units sold for N420.7 million, and Impresit Bakolori Plc with 536.9 million units exchanged for N524.9 million.
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