Dow falls slightly as U.S. stocks end mixed after Fed Chair Powell’s testimony
U.S. stocks closed mixed Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average booking back-to-back losses...
U.S. stocks closed mixed Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average booking back-to-back losses after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s second day of congressional testimony on monetary policy. The Dow DJIA, -0.18% ended 0.2% lower, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.14% rose 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, 0.40% gained 0.4%, according to preliminary data from FactSet. Powell said Wednesday during testimony before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee that no decision has been made on the size of its interest rate hike at its policy meeting later this month. In his testimony Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Powell had opened the door to potentially accelerating the pace of rate hikes.
The energy sector is having a mixed start, pressured...
The energy sector is having a mixed start, pressured by weakness in the underlying commodities, but supported by mild support in the major market futures which steadied following yesterday’s fed-driven selloff.
WTI and Brent crude oil are trading lower on concerns over more aggressive interest rate hikes following Chair Powell's testimony yesterday. Investors are also looking to the weekly EIA report to gain further clarity on inventories after the API data showed a decline in crude inventories for the first time after 10 weeks of builds. Also dampening sentiment, Barclays lowered its 2023 Brent forecast by $6 to $92 a barrel and WTI by $7 to $87, "due primarily to more resilient-than-expected Russian supplies," the bank said.
Natural gas futures are down as flows to the Freeport LNG export plant were on track to drop for the first time after the plant exited an eight-month outage last month. Gas flows to their plant were on track to reach just 0.1 bcfd on Wednesday, down from 1.0 bcfd on Tuesday.
Oil stable after unexpected draw in US crude inventories
Singapore — Oil prices steadied on Wednesday as industry data showed an unexpected draw in US crude...
Singapore — Oil prices steadied on Wednesday as industry data showed an unexpected draw in US crude oil inventories after the market tumbled in the previous session on fears that more aggressive US rate hikes would hit demand.
Brent crude futures rose 18c, or 0.2%, to $83.47 a barrel by 4.52 am GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 4c to $77.62 a barrel.
Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed US crude inventories fell by about 3.8 million barrels in the week ended March 3. The drawdown defied forecasts for a 400,000-barrel rise in crude stocks from nine analysts polled by Reuters.
However, near-term drivers pointed towards a more bearish outlook as investors braced for steeper US rate hikes.
