Wednesday, 12 April 2017

US stock indexes to open lower; Tillerson-Lavrov meeting in focus

Posted by Fort Financial Services at 15:23 Labels:

Wall Street index futures were set for a lower open as market participants looked ahead of a meeting between top diplomats from the US and Russia.
US Secretary Rex Tillerson and his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet in Moscow this afternoon. The meeting includes a long list of topics to be discussed, although the Syrian crisis is expected to be the main priority.
Geopolitical tensions spiked in the Middle East after President Donald Trump ordered the US military to fire dozens of missiles to a Syrian airbase in response to Bashar al-Assad’s chemical attack in the Idlib province last week. 
Commodities moved higher as a result of increasing risks, with gold adding a surprising 1.6 percent in the previous session and oil benchmarks holding comfortably above the $50 mark.
"I'm hopeful that we can have constructive talks with the Russian government, with Foreign Minister Lavrov and have Russia be supportive of a process that will lead to a stable Syria," said Tillerson during an interview on Sunday.
Washington was also in the spotlight concerning it’s new approach to the North Korean missile threats. After placing US Navy ships in the Korean Peninsula, Mr. Trump tweeted that "North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A."
These remarks came in two days after the Republican leader and China’s President Xi Jinping gathered at Mar-a-Lago golf resort to discuss jobs and trade relations. The meeting didn’t bring big announcements and markets showed little reaction to it.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended 10 points lower, recovering from a sharp drop. Apple stocks continued to drag the index down as the tech company faced a countersuit from Qualcomm over licensing fees. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite also finished in red territory, with financials and tech companies moving down the hill.
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.03 percent / 20651.30 points
  • Standard & Poor’s 500: -0.14 percent / 2353.78 points
  • Nasdaq Composite: -0.24 percent / 5866.77 points
Economic news on Tuesday included JOLTs jobs openings for February, which surpassed expectations at 5.743 million. Analysts had forecasted 5.655 million. 
The American Petroleum Institute reported an unexpected drawdown in US crude stockpiles for the week ended April 7. According to data, crude reserves dropped by 1.3 million barrels. Official data from the US Energy Information Administration will be available as of 14:30 GMT. Also, OPEC’s monthly is due to be released at 11:00 GMT.
Today, investors will focus on export and import price indexes at 12:30 GMT and the Federal Budget Balance for March at 18:00 GMT.

Fort Financial Services

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