While you were sleeping: Equities rise with commodities

Thursday 24th December 2015

Wall Street gained as a recovery in raw materials including copper, zinc, aluminum and oil bolstered mining and energy stocks.

In 12.59pm trading at New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.7 percent. In 12.44pm trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 1 percent.

Gains in shares of Chevron and those of Exxon Mobil, last up 3.1 percent and 2.3 percent respectively, helped propel the Dow higher.

Shares of Freeport-McMoran surged, last 14.3 percent higher, as investors found value in the beaten-down stock of the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer.

Both benchmark Brent crude and US crude climbed more than 3 percent. A report by the Energy Information Administration showed US crude inventories unexpectedly fell last week, declining 5.88 million barrels to 484.78 million barrels.

“The huge rebound in some oil and basic-material stocks really fuels the rally today and people are buying the laggards of this year,” Benno Galliker, a trader at Luzerner Kantonalbank in Lucerne, Switzerland, told Bloomberg. “It’s usual for the market to go higher the day before Christmas holidays, and the volumes are very thin so you can easily move the market.”

Financial markets will close early on Thursday, while they are closed on Friday. Trading in New York will resume on Monday.

Shares of Nike dropped, last 2.4 percent weaker at US$128.70 for the biggest percentage decliner in the Dow. Earlier in the day Nike shares had traded as high as US$136.39 after the company posted second-quarter profit that beat expectations.

The latest data on the US economy underpinned an upbeat outlook, as well as expectations that any interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve will be gradual.

Separate reports showed US personal income rose in November, while the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index increased to the highest level since July.

"The economy is not too cold, and not too hot, it is just right," Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York, told Reuters. "The Fed can stay the course ... no need to depart from a gradual pace given what we know currently about the economy."

To be sure, another report showed new orders for US manufactured capital goods declined last month.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond dropped, last 4.6 percent weaker, after the company downgraded its third-quarter profit forecast.

“Our performance in the third quarter reflects the recent trends we have been experiencing,” Chief Executive Officer Steven Temares said in a statement.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the session with a 2.7 percent gain from the previous close. Germany’s DAX Index rose 2.3 percent, as did France’s CAC 40 Index, while the UK’s FTSE 100 Index advanced 2.6 percent.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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