Stocks Waver On Wall Street as Treasury Yields and Crude Oil Prices Advance

Barry Adams
21 Oct, 2024
New York City

Stock market indexes edged slightly lower in Monday's trading after popular benchmarks closed at record highs in Friday's trading. 

The S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded at new highs after advancing about 0.9% in the previous week and extending the rally to the sixth consecutive week. 

Cautious optimism has prevailed on Wall Street as earnings roll in from leading banks, financial services companies, and transportation services providers. 

This week investors are looking forward to quarterly results from at least 450 companies as the earnings season picks up momentum. 

3M, AT&T, Amazon.com, Baker Hughes, Hilton Worldwide, Moody’s Corp, Pulte Homes, Tesla, Xerox Corp, and Verizon are on tap to release results this week.

Investors are also anticipating the release of U.S. durable goods orders on Friday and U.S. new home sales data on Thursday.

Crude oil prices rebounded amid rising tensions in the Middle East as Israel prepares to strike Iran's crude oil infrastructure over the next two weeks. 

Middle East experts anticipate Israel's expected strike is likely to disrupt crude oil supplies in the Middle East, which could spike crude oil prices by more than 10%.

 

U.S. Indexes and Treasury Yields

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.04% to 5,862.46, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.04% to 18,496.74, and the Russell 2000 index declined 0.3% to 2,273.92. 

The yield on 2-year Treasury notes edged lower to 3.99%, 10-year Treasury notes inched up to 4.13%, and 30-year Treasury bonds inched higher to 4.44%.

WTI crude oil increased $1.32 to $70.54 a barrel, and natural gas prices edged up 4 cents to $2.30 a thermal unit.

Gold rose by $17.39 to $2,738.77 an ounce, and silver increased by $0.48 to $34.19.

The dollar index, which weighs the US currency against a basket of foreign currencies, edged higher to 103.58.

 

U.S. Stock Movers

Boeing increased 3.9% to $161.09 after the company and its machinists' union agreed on a new wage contract that could be ratified as early as Wednesday. 

The new wage proposal includes several incentives, including a 35% wage increase over the next four years, a higher signing bonus, a guaranteed annual minimum bonus, and contributions to retirement plans. 

Energy complex companies traded higher after crude oil prices rebounded amid rising tensions in the Middle East and growing worry of supply disruptions. 

Exxon Mobil increased 0.1% to $120.06, Chevron Corp. advanced 0.4% to $151.31, and Marathon Oil decreased 0.3% to $26.71. 

Artificial intelligence-linked stocks advanced as investors returned to add more exposure to advanced chipmakers. 

Nvidia increased 2.5% to $141.42, AMD advanced 0.2% to $155.86, and Broadcom jumped 0.3% to $180.45.