A recovery desire for the Dow Jones, which last Friday closed lower for the fifth consecutive session, as did the S&P 500 index. The Dow Jones advanced 0.78% to 34,879 points, while the S&P 500 rose by 0.20% to 4,467 points. The Nasdaq falls by 0.20% to 15,084 points. Focus on Apple, whose annual event is scheduled for tomorrow. Market indiscretions speak of the announcement of new models of iPhones, AirPods and Apple Watch. The stock is up by 0.46%.
It should be noted that the Nasdaq Composite index is nevertheless under pressure, after closing the session on Friday down for the third consecutive session. For its part, the S&P 500 has returned from the longest bearish phase since last February 22nd.
On a weekly level, both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones lost 1.69% and 2.15%, respectively, last week, each reporting, on average, the worst week since last June. The Nasdaq, down 1.61% on a weekly basis, ended the worst week since July.
Meanwhile, the cases of Covid-19 infections in the United States continue to decline. According to data from the CDC, the seven-day average up to last Friday indicated 136,000 new cases per day, down from 157,000 new cases on average at the end of August.
The headlines of companies linked to the reopening, such as Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, but also the cruise travel giant Carnival benefit from the news. The cyclicals GM and Citigroup also did well. Among other stocks, MGM Resorts International’s prices jumped nearly + 2% after Bernstein’s upgrade to outperform.
The caution of sentiment, however, is explained both by the heavy losses suffered by the Hong Kong stock exchange, and by the data relating to inflation measured by the producer price index, released on Friday.
In August, the figure flew 8.3% yoy, reporting the strongest growth since at least 2010. On a monthly basis, the acceleration was 0.7%, above +0. , 6% estimated by the Dow Jones consensus. Tomorrow the consumer price index for August will be announced which, according to analysts interviewed by FactSet, will indicate a jump of 5.3%.
Waiting for the meeting of the FOMC, the monetary policy arm of the Fed, on 21 September: the question is whether the announcement of the tapering of the asset purchase plan will arrive on that occasion.
Christine Lagarde’s ECB announced last week that it will reduce the purchases it makes monthly with the PEPP monetary bazooka.
In spite of last week’s losses, US equity indices are still traveling relatively close to their record highs: the Dow Jones is 2.87% from the all-time high, the S&P 1.92%, while the Nasdaq Composite is at a value less than 1.87% from the all-time high.
Focus on oil prices after the publication of the monthly OPEC report.
The cartel is more optimistic about the global economic recovery of 2022 and, as a result, believes it will be next year when world demand for oil exceeds pre-pandemic levels. From the report, it emerges that OPEC has revised upwards its estimates of global oil demand growth in 2022 to +4.15 million barrels per day, compared to +3.28 million barrels per day last month.
The cartel now predicts that, by 2022, world demand will jump accordingly to 100.83 million barrels per day.
However, OPEC at the same time revised downward the global oil demand outlook for the last quarter of 2021, citing the impact of Covid’s Delta variant and stating that a further economic recovery will be partially postponed to ‘next year.
OPEC has thus announced that it expects oil demand to average 99.7 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2021, down from the 110,000 barrels per day forecast in its previous outlook.
Oil prices are up today, also in the wake of fears of the US supply: in particular the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), said that the tropical storm Nicholas of the Gulf of Mexico could be upgraded to hurricane in the coming days.
The WTI contract traded in New York rose more than 1.78% to $ 70.96 a barrel, while Brent rose 1.33% to $ 73.88 a barrel. Prices accelerate upwards following the release of the OPEC report.