US close: Wall Street ends week on slightly mixed note

By Sharecast News

Sharecast News | 18 Mar, 2017

Updated : 14:55

US stocks were little changed on Friday as investors kept an eye on proceedings at the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Germany, although bank shares did end the week on a down note.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10% at 20,914.62, the S&P 500 drifted lower 0.13% or 3.13 points to end at 2,378.25 and the Nasdaq Composite was flat at 5,901.00.

From a sector standpoint the best performance was to be seen in the following industry groups: gambling (2.23%), Defence (1.56%) and Real Estate Holdings (1.35%).

As of Friday evening, little progress had apparently been made by the assmebled finance ministers in reaching a common position on international trade, with US concern over the size of Germany and China's trade surpluses vis-a-vis the States one of the main sources of friction.

Elsewhere, a meeting at the White House between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Donald Trump in Washington ended with a frigid press conference, as the US leader continued to voice his position that current trade arrangements between the two nations were "very, very unfair" for his country.

The KBW index of bank shares went into the weekend nursing losses of 1.09% alongside a four basis point drop in benchmark 10-year US Treasury yields to 2.50%.

Linked to the above, speaking on Friday Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari argued against further interest rate hikes until the US central bank had announced its plan to begin reducing the size of the balance sheets and there had been time to better understand the impact that might have on financial markets.

"The announcement of our balance sheet plan could trigger somewhat tighter monetary conditions [...] After it has been published and the market response is understood, we can return to using the federal funds rate as our primary policy tool, with the balance sheet normalization under way in the background," Kashkari said.

In currency markets, the dollar was little changed, with the spot dollar index off a smidgen, by 0.06% to 100.3.

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate futures traded one cent lower to finish at $48.72 per barrel on NYMEX even after Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih hinted earlier in the day that the OPEC could extend its agreement to reduce output, if stockpiles remain above the five-year average, ahead of the cartel’s next meeting on 25 May.

"In dearth of further reaction from the world’s biggest oil cartel, investors could be reluctant to bet on a price recovery above the $50 level. The barrel is expected to float at about the 200-day moving average, $49," Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group said.

According to Baker Hughes the US oil rig count jumped by another 14 in the latest week to 631.

On the data front, the consumer sentiment index rose to 97.6 from 96.3 in February and 91.0 in January 2016, beating expectations for a reading of 97.0.

The current economic conditions index increased to 114.5 from 111.5 the month before and 105.6 in the same month last year. The index of consumer expectations nudged up to 86.7 from 86.5 in February and 81.5 in March last year.

US industrial production was unchanged in February, below the 0.2% consensus forecast and following a 0.1% revised decrease in January.

The index of leading indicators rose 0.6%, slightly above the 0.5% consensus.

In corporate news, Tiffany's gained 2.71% after its fourth-quarter results beat expectations.

Dow Jones - Risers

3M Co. (MMM) $192.36 1.08%
Boeing Co. (BA) $180.10 1.07%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $113.45 0.99%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $81.25 0.79%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $50.39 0.70%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $149.60 0.58%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $128.64 0.52%
General Electric Co. (GE) $29.88 0.44%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $35.27 0.37%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $64.87 0.36%