Economy
Wall Street Digests Trump-Kim Summit as Fed Announcement Looms
By Investors Hub
The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a roughly flat opening on Tuesday following an historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The lack of momentum on Wall Street comes after Trump and Kim signed a joint statement pledging to work together to ?build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.?
The statement said Kim reaffirmed his firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, while Trump committed to provide security guarantees to North Korea.
The U.S. and North Korea also committed to hold follow-on negotiations led by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a relevant high-level North Korean official.
Overall trading activity may remain somewhat subdued, as traders look ahead to monetary policy announcements by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points, while the ECB has indicated its meeting will be used to discuss ending its bond purchasing program.
After initially showing a lack of direction, stocks moved modestly higher over the course of the trading session on Monday. With the upward gains on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached their best closing levels in three months.
The major averages pulled back going into the close but managed to end the day in positive territory. The Dow inched up 5.78 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 25,322.31, the Nasdaq rose 14.41 points or 0.2 percent to 7,659.93 and the S&P 500 edged up 2.97 points or 0.1 percent to 2,782.00.
The higher close on Wall Street came as traders looked ahead to the historic summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday.
Ahead of the meeting, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated the U.S. is prepared to offer North Korea “unique” security assurances in exchange for the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
In remarks last Thursday, Trump expressed some optimism about his meeting with Kim but stressed that he is willing to walk away from negotiations.
Trump said his administration has stopped using the term “maximum pressure” with regard to North Korea and suggested the success of the negotiations could be determined by whether he uses the words after the meeting.
Meanwhile, trade concerns continue to hang over the markets after Trump backed out of a joint G7 communiqué over the weekend.
Trump continued to hammer U.S. allies on trade after leaving the G7 summit early in order to attend the meeting with Kim in Singapore.
Natural gas stocks showed a significant move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index up by 1.7 percent.
The strength among natural gas stocks came amid an increase by the price of the commodity, with natural gas for July delivery climbing $0.059 to $2.949 per million BTUs.
Considerable strength also emerged among transportation stocks, as reflected by the 1.1 percent gain posted by the Dow Jones Transportation Average. The average reached its best closing level in well over four months.
Computer hardware and gold stocks also saw some strength on the day, while interest-rate sensitive utilities stocks moved to the downside.
Economy
BNB Price Reflects Changing Dynamics in the Digital Asset Market
Economy
NASD Unlisted Security Index Crosses 4,000-point Benchmark Again
By Adedapo Adesanya
The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange achieved a milestone on Friday, April 24, 2026, after five securities on the platform helped with a 1.85 per cent growth.
Data showed that the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) again crossed the 4,000-point benchmark yesterday.
The index chalked up 73.64 points during the trading day to close at 4,052.59 points compared with the preceding session’s 3,978.95 points, while the market capitalisation added N5.38 billion to finish at N2.424 trillion versus Thursday’s closing value of N2.380 trillion.
The price gainers were led by Okitipupa Plc, which grew by N25.00 to sell at N305.00 per share compared with the previous price of N280.00 per share. Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) Plc gained N6.92 to close at N76.26 per unit versus N69.34 per unit, Afriland Properties Plc appreciated by N1.00 to N17.00 per share from N18.00 per share, FrieslandCampina Wamco Nigeria Plc improved by 55 Kobo to N99.55 per unit from N99.00 per unit, and Food Concepts Plc increased by 5 Kobo to N2.70 per share from N2.65 per share.
However, there was a price loser, MRS Oil, which dipped by N21.75 to N195.75 per unit from N217.50 per unit.
During the final session of the week, the value of securities jumped 75.2 per cent to N41.3 million from N23.6 million units, and the number of deals expanded by 62.9 per cent to 44 deals from 27 deals, while the volume of securities declined marginally by 0.9 per cent to 447,403 units from 451,522 units.
At the close of trades, Great Nigeria Insurance (GNI) Plc was the most traded stock by volume (year-to-date) with 3.4 billion units worth N8.4 billion, trailed by Resourcery Plc with 1.1 billion units valued at N415.7 million, and Infrastructure Guarantee Credit Plc with 400 million units traded for N1.2 billion.
GNI was also the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 3.4 billion units sold for N8.4 billion, followed by CSCS Plc with 59.6 million units transacted for N4.0 billion, and Okitipupa Plc with 27.8 million units exchanged for N1.9 billion.
Economy
Naira Slips to N1,358/$1 as FX Reserves, Policy Uncertainty Concerns
By Adedapo Adesanya
It was not a good day for the Nigerian Naira in the currency market on Friday, April 24, as its value depreciated against the major foreign currencies at the close of transactions.
In the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), it lost N4.53 or 0.33 per cent against the United States Dollar yesterday to trade at N1,358.44/$1, in contrast to the N1,353.91/$1 it was exchanged on Thursday.
Equally, the domestic currency slipped against the Pound Sterling in the official market during the session by N8.14 to close at N1,834.02/£1, compared with the previous rate of N1,825.88/£1 and dropped N8.01 against the Euro to sell at N1,590.73/€1 versus N1,582.72/€1.
Also, the Naira depreciated against the US Dollar at the GTBank FX desk on Friday by N4 to quote at N1,370/$1 compared with the previous session’s N1,366/$1, and at the parallel market, it depleted by N5 to settle at N1,380/$1 versus the preceding day’s N1,375/$1.
Data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicated that NFEM interbank turnover surged to N43.562 million across 68 deals, up from N28.117 million the previous day.
Despite the CBN’s reassurance that the recent drop in external reserves is not worrisome, the market remains unsettled by persistent concerns over liquidity constraints, policy transparency, and weakening confidence in Nigeria’s FX market as gross reserves continue to decline to $48.4 billion.
The outlook for the Dollar appears supported by broader macro risks, including elevated oil prices tied to the tanker traffic disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and a continued US-Iran standoff over ceasefire negotiations.
A look at the digital currency market showed that investors are sitting on the edge as the US Dollar rebounded amid geopolitical and inflation risks despite continued inflows into US spot bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
Solana (SOL) rose by 1.2 per cent to sell $86.45, Cardano (ADA) appreciated by 1.1 per cent to $0.2517, Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 0.9 per cent to $0.0989, Ripple (XRP) improved by 0.3 per cent to $1.43, Ethereum (ETH) soared by 0.2 per cent to $2,316.83, and Binance Coin (BNB) chalked up 0.1 per cent to sell for $637.44.
However, TRON (TRX) depreciated by 1.3 per cent to $0.3235, and Bitcoin (BTC) lost 0.2 per cent to close at $77,562.27, while the US Dollar Tether (USDT) and the US Dollar Coin (USDC) closed flat at $1.00 each.
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