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Oil shares outperform on flat day for US stocks
NEW YORK, June 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Petroleum-linked shares rallied
Wednesday while pharma companies were under pressure as Wall Street stocks
finished the session little changed.
“The market is very subdued this week, taking sort of a pause and a
breather before news around the G20 and the debate on interest rates,” said
Nate Thooft, senior portfolio manager of Manulife Asset Management.
All three indices had been in positive territory most of the day, but the
Dow and S&P 500 dipped into the red near the end of the session.
Investors are hoping that G20 talks between US President Donald Trump and
Chinese President Xi Jinping will yield progress toward resolving the year-
long trade dispute.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down less than 0.1 percent at
25,536.82.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.1 percent to settle at 2,913.78, while the
tech rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.3 percent to 7,909.97.
Sales of US durable goods fell 1.3 percent to $243.4 billion in May, US
data showed, with the crisis involving the Boeing 737 MAX weighing on the
figures.
Petroleum producers Apache and Devon Energy advanced around three percent
each after a bullish US oil inventory report lifted oil prices.
Chip companies were another strong sector following a healthy earnings
report from Micron Technology, which surged 13.3 percent after reporting
better-than-expected third-quarter earnings.
Other chip companies also advanced, including Western Digital, which
gained 7.3 percent and Nvidia, which gained 5.1 percent.
But pharmaceutical companies were under pressure, with Dow member Pfizer
and Merck both losing about two percent.
An exception among drug producers was AbbVie, which jumped 3.5 percent a
day after unveiling a $63 billion takeover of Allergan. Shares of AbbVie had
fallen sharply on Tuesday following the announcement.
General Mills slumped 4.5 percent after fourth-quarter sales missed
analyst expectations, due in part to lower sales in North America and some
other regions.
But FedEx climbed 2.5 percent after it reported better-than-expected
fourth-quarter profits, even as it warned that continued trade conflicts were
likely to pressure profits in fiscal 2020.
BSS/AFP/HR/0855