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US stock futures traded mostly lower ahead of Monday’s Wall Street session, with investors awaiting the outcome of the Federal Reserve policy meeting, which ends on Wednesday.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I: DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGE | 32778.64 | +293.05 | + 0.90% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 3943.34 | +4.00 | + 0.10% |
| I: COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITION INDEX | 13319.864652 | -78.81 | -0.59% |
On Friday, a late-afternoon shopping boom helped push the S&P 500 0.1% up to 3,943.34, extending its winning streak for a fourth consecutive day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9% to 32,778.64, driven by industrial stocks like Boeing and Caterpillar. The high-tech Nasdaq fell 0.6% to 13,319.86.
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The Russell 2000 index of shares in smaller companies advanced 0.6%, to 2,352.79. The week ended 7.3% higher, surpassing the 2.6% gain of the S&P 500 for the week.
The bond market was again the dominant force in the fall of technology stocks, because as yields raise interest rates, they make bullish stocks look expensive.
After remaining stable for most of the week, the yield on the 10-year Treasury bill jumped to 1.62%, from 1.52% the day before. Investors sold shares at the end of last week, after yields surpassed the 1.60% mark. On Monday, the 10-year Treasury stood at 1.62%.
US stock futures traded mostly lower ahead of Monday’s Wall Street session, with investors awaiting the outcome of the Federal Reserve policy meeting, which ends on Wednesday. (Courtney Crow / New York Stock Exchange via AP)
The increase in bond yields came when President Joe Biden enacted the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan law, which will include $ 1,400 checks for most Americans and additional payments for those with children or those who have received insurance -employment last year. President Biden also outlined a plan, in a prime-time speech on Thursday, to expand the vaccine’s eligibility to all Americans by May 1.
Wall Street received another signal on Friday that inflation is rising. The Labor Department said its producer price index, which measures inflation before reaching consumers, rose 0.5% last month, after a record jump of 1.3% the previous month. Last year, wholesale prices rose 2.8%, the biggest gain in 12 months in wholesale in more than two years.
Some economists fear that inflation, which has been latent in the past decade, may rise even further with the extra demand generated by the stimulus package. Others disagree, as there are 9.5 million fewer jobs in the American economy than before the pandemic a year ago. They say unemployment will keep inflation under control.
Meanwhile, stocks were mixed in Asia on Monday, with China releasing a variety of data that painted a complicated picture of its recovery from the pandemic.
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Referrals increased in Hong Kong and Tokyo, but fell in Shanghai and South Korea.
The approval of a $ 1.9 trillion aid package for the US economy has increased investor confidence that the US and the global economy are likely to experience a strong recovery from the pandemic in the second half of the year, but will also potentially increase the inflation rate.
China led the global recovery, reopening earlier than other countries due to the coronavirus outages that emerged in central Wuhan in early 2020.
Retail sales increased by almost 36% over the previous year in January-February. But the increase was mainly driven by strong demand for cars, catering and jewelry, suggesting that Chinese consumers were overflowing during the Lunar New Year, ING economists said in a report.
The data was exaggerated by the low base effects of last year’s stoppages, they said.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose to 5.5% from 5.2% a year earlier, possibly affected by coronavirus outbreaks in some areas, analysts said.
“Travel restrictions weighed on retail sales, but boosted industrial production and investment. We believe that activity will remain strong during the first half of this year, before giving way to a weaker second half, “said Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics in a comment.
“Support for domestic policy is gradually being withdrawn. And foreign demand for Chinese products will decline as vaccines begin to reverse the recent shift in global consumption patterns, “he said.
The Shanghai Composite index fell 1% to 3,419.95. The Tokyo Nikkei 225 index rose 0.2% to 29,766.97 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.1% to 28,777.41. In South Korea, the Kospi lost 0.3% to 3,045.71. Sydney’s S & P / ASX 200 rose 0.1% to 6,773.00.
India’s Sensex lost 1.8% to 49,859.99.
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Japan’s central bank will also publish a policy update on Friday.
In Monday’s other trades, the US benchmark crude rose 55 cents to $ 66.16 a barrel in e-commerce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. He lost 41 cents to $ 65.61 a barrel on Friday. Brent oil, the international standard, amounted to 61 cents at $ 69.83 a barrel.
The US dollar rose to 109.19 Japanese yen from 109.02 yen on Friday. The euro fell to $ 1.1919 from $ 1.1949.