While you were sleeping: Stocks languish

Wednesday 8th March 2017

Wall Street slipped, as did US Treasuries, as investors prepared for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates when they gather next week.

Traders are pricing in a 98 percent chance of a hike at next week’s Fed meeting, according to Bloomberg.

Wall Street weakened. In 1.22pm trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.07 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index inched 0.01 percent lower. In 1.08pm trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 0.16 percent.

US Treasuries also fell, pushing yields on the 10-year note 1 basis point higher to 2.51 percent.

In the Dow, declines in shares of Verizon and those of Caterpillar, recently down 1 percent and 0.7 percent respectively, outweighed gains in shares of Boeing and those Johnson & Johnson, up 0.6 percent each respectively.

Energy stocks including Chevron fell. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said it was premature to consider whether an agreement to cut global oil output should be continued into the second half of the year, Reuters reported, citing comments made at the CERAWeek industry conference in Houston.

US President Donald Trump hit healthcare stocks such as Pfizer, which recently traded 0.6 percent weaker, when he sent a tweet saying he’s “working on a new system where there will be competition in the drug industry.”

Shares of Snap, the owner of Snapchat, sank in their fourth day of trading. The stock traded 10.9 percent weaker as of 1.35pm in New York.

Aegis Capital analyst Victor Anthony, who rates the shares hold, published a note expressing concern on a continuing deceleration in the company’s daily active user growth so far in 2017, according to Bloomberg.

A Commerce Department showed the US trade deficit jumped 9.6 percent to US$48.5 billion in January, the highest level since March 2012. When adjusted for inflation, the trade deficit widened to US$65.3 billion from US$62.0 billion in December.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the session with a slide of 0.3 percent from the previous close, as shares of drug makers fell. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.2 percent, while France’s CAC 40 Index shed 0.4 percent.

Germany’s DAX Index added almost 0.1 percent.

Shares of Switzerland's Lindt & Spruengli rose 1.1 percent after the chocolate maker said it expects 2017 organic sales growth to be "broadly in line" with that of the previous year, putting it at the lower end of its longer-term target for between 6 percent and 8 percent.

Lindt posted organic, or like-for-like, sales growth of 6 percent in its 2016 financial year, it said in a statement.

"For the 2017 financial year, the group expects sales growth to be broadly in line with the previous year, and a further improvement in the operating margin," the company said.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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