April 18, 2016: Markets opened lower Monday after on the weakness in overnight markets related to the failure of the Doha meeting of oil producers to come up with an agreement on a production freeze. The bad karma did not last very long, though, as stocks turned higher after about half an hour and traded solidly in the green for the rest of the day. The energy sector was the day’s best performer, and all 10 sectors were trading higher just ahead of the closing bell. WTI crude oil for June delivery settled at $39.78 a barrel, down about 1.4% for the day. June gold added less than 0.1% to settle at $1,235.00 for the day. Equities were headed for a higher close shortly before the closing bell as the DJIA traded up 0.58% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 0.63%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.44%.
The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Monday was The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) which traded up 3.01% at $101.56. The stock’s 52-week range is $86.25 to $122.08. Volume was about a little better than equal to the daily average of around 8.4 million shares. The company’s latest version of the Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ was a weekend smash at the box office opening with receipts of more than $103 million. The stock was also upgraded to Buy Monday morning by analysts at Pivotal who put a price target of $121 on the stock.
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) traded up 1.82% at $81.54. The stock’s 52-week range is $60.00 to $81.50, and the high was posted Monday. Trading volume was about 45% below the daily average of around 10 million. The company reports first-quarter results on Thursday.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded up 1.52% at $56.49. The stock’s 52-week range is $39.72 to $56.85. Volume was about half the daily average of around 34 million shares traded. The world’s largest software company also had no specific news Monday.
The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) traded up 0.56% at $131.87. The stock’s 52-week range is $102.10 to $154.09. Trading volume was about 35% below the daily average of around 6.3 million. The aircraft maker had no specific news on Monday.
Of the Dow 30 stocks 27 are set to close higher on Monday and 3 are on track to close lower.
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