Wall Street stocks finished the first trading day of the new year on Friday little changed following lackluster US economic data and with many market participants still on holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 9.92 points (0.06 percent) to 17,832.99 in the session, while the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.70 (0.03 percent) to 2,058.20 and the tech-rich NASDAQ Composite Index fell 9.24 (0.20 percent) to 4,726.81.
All three indices spent much of the year’s first session in the red, following reports that showed lower US construction spending in November and weaker manufacturing activity last month.
However, stocks strengthened somewhat in the last 30 minutes of trading, enabling the Dow to notch a small gain and cutting losses in the other two indices. Analysts said volume was light after markets closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day.
“The year really starts on Monday,” BTIG chief global strategist Dan Greenhaus said.
The S&P 500 rose 11.4 percent last year, marking the third straight year with a double-digit gain.
Key challenges to recording more gains this year include weak growth in Europe and emerging economies; the hit from sharply lower oil prices to Russia and other petroleum exporters; and the blow from any shift in the US Federal Reserve’s policy of ultra-low interest rates.
Rockwell Global Capital LLC chief market economist Peter Cardillo predicted that this year would be another good year for US stocks, but one that is also more volatile.
“We’re going to see another bull run,” he said. “However, we will see more corrections and the corrections will be steeper than they were in 2014.”
Drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp rose 1.5 percent on Friday after reporting that same-store sales increased 5.3 percent last month, compared with the same period a year ago.
Linn Energy LLC rose 12.30 percent as it announced that the Blackstone Group LP will finance drilling programs for the oil and gas firm in exchange for a payout on successful wells.
Linn also cut its capital spending budget for this year by 53 percent and said it would trim its dividend to US$1.25 per share from US$2.90 due to the drop in oil prices.
Bond prices rose on Friday. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.12 percent from 2.17 percent on Wednesday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.69 percent from 2.75 percent.
PERSISTENT RUMORS: Nvidia’s CEO said the firm is not in talks to sell AI chips to China, but he would welcome a change in US policy barring the activity Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company is not in discussions to sell its Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Chinese firms, waving off speculation it is trying to engineer a return to the world’s largest semiconductor market. Huang, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of meetings with longtime partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), took the opportunity to clarify recent comments about the US-China AI race. The Nvidia head caused a stir in an interview this week with the Financial Times, in which he was quoted as saying “China will win” the AI race. Huang yesterday said
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
MORE WEIGHT: The national weighting was raised in one index while holding steady in two others, while several companies rose or fell in prominence MSCI Inc, a global index provider, has raised Taiwan’s weighting in one of its major indices and left the country’s weighting unchanged in two other indices after a regular index review. In a statement released on Thursday, MSCI said it has upgraded Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country World Index by 0.02 percentage points to 2.25 percent, while maintaining the weighting in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the most closely watched by foreign institutional investors, at 20.46 percent. Additionally, the index provider has left Taiwan’s weighting in the MSCI All-Country Asia ex-Japan Index unchanged at 23.15 percent. The latest index adjustments are to
RSS