A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – Wall Street has ended little changed as Applied Materials helped lift the tech sector and offset a renewed drop in oil prices, with major indexes capping their best week of 2016.
The Nasdaq rose on Friday, helped by a seven per cent jump in Applied Materials shares after the chip equipment provider gave a strong profit and revenue forecast for the current quarter.
Buoyed by big gains on Tuesday and Wednesday, the major indexes posted their best weekly performances this year, with the Nasdaq tallying its strongest week since July.
The S&P 500 remains down 6.2 per cent this year, however, hurt by oil’s prolonged slide and fears of China-led slowdown in the global economy.
The performance of equities has been tightly linked with that of oil. The commodity’s price fell four per cent on Friday as record high US crude stockpiles heightened supply concerns, and the S&P energy sector ended down 0.4 per cent.
“We have seen oil come back off and that has put some pressure on the market,” said Walter Todd, chief investment officer at Greenwood Capital Associates in Greenwood, South Carolina.
“Some of these earnings that we have gotten out of the past couple of days from retailers have not exactly been confidence inspiring.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 21.44 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 16,391.99. The S&P 500 lost 0.05 points, ending roughly flat, at 1,917.78. The Nasdaq Composite added 16.89 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 4,504.43.
LONDON – Britain’s top share index fell as energy stocks came under pressure again from dropping oil prices, although the index recorded its best weekly performance since October following strong gains in the previous sessions.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index finished 0.4 per cent weaker on Friday at 5,950.23 points after hitting a two-week high in the previous session. It gained more than four per cent this week.
Investors traded cautiously ahead of the outcome of a EU summit to negotiate new membership terms for Britain.
The meeting was forced into extra time on Friday as Prime Minister David Cameron struggled for a deal he could sell to sceptical British voters in a referendum.
“The political risks are hard to price in at the moment … There is clearly little appetite in building fresh long and/or short positions before more clarity on the issue,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at London Capital Group, said.
HONG KONG – Asian shares slipped from near three-week highs as a rally in oil prices reversed and investors remained cautious about the outlook for the global economy.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6 per cent, but gains in previous sessions left it on track for a weekly gain of 4.1 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.4 per cent as the yen firmed, but ended the week up 6.8 per cent.
“This week is the first sign of change I have seen in 2016,” Evan Lucas, market strategist at trading services provider IG, wrote in a note, referring to some the upswing in equities.
But “most fund managers are nearing their maximum levels of cash under their respective mandates. This capital needs to be deployed to confirm the change is on”.
MSCI’s emerging market index hit a six-week high overnight on hopes that oil prices were stabilising.
Brent crude extended losses on Friday, and was last trading down 0.9 percent at $33.99 per barrel, but is up 1.9 percent for the week.
US crude was at $US30.53, off a two-week high of $US31.98 hit on Thursday but up 3.7 per cent so far this week.
“I would assume oil prices will face downward pressure and there will be selling into a rally,” said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
WELLINGTON – The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 30.6 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6,141.72.
