Wall Street falls as earnings weigh; Dow, S&P up for month

U.S. stocks posted their largest weekly drop in more than two months on Friday as earnings reports continued to weigh, but the S&P 500 and Dow managed to close up for April after strong showings mid-month.

Company results once more gave the market direction as a 9 percent decline in Gilead Sciences shares weighed the most on both the S&P and the Nasdaq Composite.

Apple shares were down for the tenth session in the last 11 and closed the week down 11.3 percent, the largest such decline since January 2013. Its April fall was of 14 percent.

Apple and Gilead, alongside Corning, Goodyear and Xerox are among the companies that reported earnings this week and are closing them with double-digit declines in their stock.

"Every sort of case-by-case blowup was handled in a company-specific fashion and lo and behold this week we have stumbled into some household names that kind of rolled the market over with them," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 57.12 points, or 0.32 percent, to 17,773.64, the S&P 500 lost 10.51 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,065.3 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 29.93 points, or 0.62 percent, to 4,775.36.

The weekly declines were of 1.3 percent for both the Dow and S&P and the Nasdaq fell 2.7 percent. It was the largest weekly drop for the Dow since the week to Feb. 12, and for the S&P and Nasdaq the declines were the largest going back to Feb. 5.

For the month, only the Nasdaq ended in negative territory.

"Today's fall is just noise after the massive movement we've seen in the past few weeks," said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis.

Materials stocks on the S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent Friday, taking the index down 0.3 percent for the week. However its April gain of 4.9 percent adds to advances in February and March that make the three-month increase of more than 20 percent the largest for the sector in any three consecutive months going back to September 2009.

On Friday Amazon jumped 9.6 percent to $659.59 after the company's quarterly results blew past analysts' expectations.

First-quarter earnings from S&P 500 components are expected to have fallen 5.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Of the 311 companies that have reported, 57 percent reported revenue above analyst expectations, compared with the long-term average of 60 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.36-to-1 and on the Nasdaq a 1.81-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 42 new highs and 32 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges totaled just above 9 billion shares, compared with the 7.0 billion average over the past 20 sessions.

Source: www.reuters.com

Oil prices reach 2016 highs

World oil prices struck 2016 high points this week as a weaker dollar attracted buyers to a market struggling to overcome a global supply glut.

Dollar-denominated oil has become more attractive for buyers of rival currencies despite lingering concerns about excess output, thanks to the US unit falling heavily, particularly against the yen.

The dollar’s fall comes as the US Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting on Wednesday, signalling it was in no hurry to raise borrowing costs.

The dollar has since fallen sharply against the yen after the Bank of Japan decided against additional stimulus measures for the struggling Japanese economy.

On Friday, the Brent oil contract reached $48.50 a barrel — the highest level since early November.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hit a near six-month peak at $46.63.

Brent is meanwhile on course for its best monthly gain since May 2009, noted David Cheetham, analyst at trading firm XTB, on the final trading day of April.

“The 22 percent rise so far in April has seen the market move back above the $48 handle for the first time since early November,” he added.

Around 1300 GMT, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in June was slightly off Friday’s high, though still up nine cents compared with Thursday’s close, at $48.23 a barrel.

WTI for June stood at $46.49, up 46 cents.

“Nothing appears capable of stopping the surge in oil prices at the moment,” Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said this week.

“Attention is paid to any news that fits in with the general picture of rising prices, whereas any news that does not is largely ignored,” he added.

Oil prices has won support in recent days also from speculation that Saudi Arabia is planning to cut back drilling as the market worries about excessive global supplies.

The market “seems to have got an extra boost from a report out of Nabor Industries’ earnings call”, said Bob Yawger of Mizuho Securities.

Yawger said the drilling company claimed that the Saudis have plans to reduce their rig counts by 10 percent.

Earlier this month, major crude producers, including OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, failed to agree in Doha to curbing crude output.

Oil prices meanwhile endured brief pressure midweek after the US Energy Department reported that commercial crude stockpiles in the United States jumped by two million barrels last week, slightly more than analysts had expected.

The oil market is recovering after nosediving to 13-year lows of around $27 in February, in the wake of a sustained drop from above around $100 seen two years ago.

Source: Guardian Newspaper.