US shares marked a record intraday high at midsession on Friday – even if the influential gross domestic product print disappointed.
The S&P 500 market bellwether was up 0.2% at 2,174. Earlier, it scaled a new high of 2,177. The ticker was also on target to mark the best monthly gain since March when it rebounded from February’s 2016 nadir.
US second quarter growth came in well below expectations today, fuelling a reassessment of rate rise expectations and hitting the dollar. Here’s a round up of what economists are saying.
The US economy grew at an annualised pace of 1.2% in the three months to the end of June, a modest acceleration from 0.8% in the first quarter, but less than half the 2.5% forecast by economists.
“The big contrast remains between the consumer which is providing all the growth and industry which is struggling to grow at all. The Q2 miss was mainly due to inventories i.e. some huge destocking. The result of this data is likely to scare the Fed again about any start to normalising interest rates from their still emergency levels,” said Jamie Constable, equity sales, at N+1 Singer in London.
One factor which helped support the bourse was that oil prices remained firm. The West Texas Intermediate was up 0.8% at $41.46.
The S&P Midcap 400 was up 0.5% at 1,560, led by IT services company Fair Isaac and Company Inc (NYSE:FICO), up 11.4% at $129.04.
The S&P Smallcap 600 was up 0.12% at 743 and led by Gulf Island Fab (NASDAQ:GIFI), up 27.2% to $8.65.
Open
US shares were mixed at the off, with the tech heavy Nasdaq the only one in positive territory, as traders mulled latest economic data.
The Nasdaq index added 0.02% to stand at 5,155, while the S&P500 lost 0.07% to go to 2,168.
The Dow Jones Industrial index was down 0.3% to 18,400 at the time of writing.
Crude prices took a bashing and hit the big names like Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) on the Dow Jones industrial average.
The US economy expanded less than forecast in the second quarter as firms are wary in the face of global factors.
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose at a 1.2% annualized rate after a 0.8% advance.
The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.5% second-quarter increase.
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PREVIEW
US shares are poised for a mixed start after stocks were buoyed by tech earnings yesterday from the likes of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and social network Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).
Also in focus are second quarter GDP numbers in the US, which may shed light on whether the US economy bounced back fro m the first-quarter slump or is stuck in a a holding pattern.
Wall Street shares closed out Thursday with the Dow Jones down 16 at 18, 456, the Nasdaq up 15 at 5,154 and the S&P500 up almost four at 2,170.
In futures today, the S&P500 is down three; the Nasdaq is up 2.25 and the Dow Jones is down 30.
Google shares are powering higher in pre-market, up 4% as parent company Alphabet said its mobile and video business had prompted strong results in the second quarter.
The group reported profits of US$4.9bn from revenues of US$21.5bn for the third quarter.
In London, FTSE100 is down nine at the time of writing, while the German DAX is up 0.18% to 10,292.
The oil price, of US crude, is down 0.83% to stand at US$40.83 a barrel.