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- Nasdaq and S&P 500 reach record highs
- Oil prices drop on profit-taking
- Saudi and Abu Dhabi’s indices outperform in a quiet region
- Dollar strengthens, gold drops
Global markets
Robust results from Coca-Cola, Twitter, United Technologies and Lockheed Martin boosted shares on Wall Street overnight.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.52 percent to 26,647.97, the S&P 500 gained 0.91 percent to 2,934.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.35 percent to 8,123.25. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices reached record closing highs.
Analysts said that alongside better-than-feared corporate earnings, a more supportive policy environment is helping to boost risk appetite, according to a Reuters report.
“The Fed has been joined in its dovish tilt by major central banks across the globe ... the tilt globally reflects genuine concern not to allow individual countries and the globe to tip into recession. That risk has receded,” Greg McKenna, strategist at McKenna Macro in Australia, said in a note to clients.
Asian shares tracked a rise on Wall Street in early trading on Wednesday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent in early trading in Asia.
Oil prices
Oil prices retreated on Wednesday on profit-taking, following gains in previous sessions.
Brent crude futures were at $74.24 per barrel at 0058 GMT, down 27 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $66.02 per barrel, down 28 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their previous settlement.
Crude futures rose to 2019 highs earlier in the week after the United States said on Monday it would end all exemptions on sanctions against Iran oil exports.
Middle East markets
Saudi Arabia’s index rose 0.4 percent on Tuesday, with Riyad Bank climbing 3.6 percent to reach its highest since May 2006 as the bank posted a 44.7 percent increase in first quarter net profit.
The Abu Dhabi index edged up 0.3 percent, with First Abu Dhabi Bank rising 0.7 percent.
Dubai’s index dropped 0.4 percent, led by a 2.2 percent drop in its largest listed developer, Emaar Properties, and a 1.3 percent fall in Emirates NBD.
Qatar's blue-chip index slid 0.2 percent with market heavyweight Industries Qatar falling 3.1 percent.
Egypt’s blue-chip index EGX30 dropped 1.1 percent, Kuwait’s premier market index fell 0.4 percent, Oman’s index dropped 0.5 percent and Bahrain’s index declined by 0.3 percent.
Currencies
The dollar edged higher early on Wednesday in response to Tuesday’s U.S. housing data which showed that sales of new, U.S. single-family homes jumped to a near one-and-a-half year high in March.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, stood at 97.602.
Precious metals
Gold prices dropped on a stronger dollar.
Spot gold fell 0.1 percent to $1,270.40 per ounce by 0105 GMT and U.S. gold futures were 0.1 percent lower at $1,272.50 an ounce.
(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Michael Fahy)
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© ZAWYA 2019
