April 19, 2018: Markets opened lower Thursday for the first time in five days. Absent an significant economic news, investors and traders were looking earnings results that have been good, but just not good enough to justify some high valuations. 10-year Treasury yields were back above 2.9% for a while today too.
WTI crude oil for May delivery settled at $68.29 a barrel, down 0.3% for the day. The May contract expires Friday. June gold dropped about 0.4% on the day to settle at $1,348.80. Equities were headed for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 0.26% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.50%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.65%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTJ8) for April delivery traded at $8,280, up about 1.9% on the CBOE after opening at $8,1800 this morning. The digital currency’s trading range for the day was $8,100 to $8,320.
The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Thursday was The Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) which traded down 2.87% at $75.27. The stock’s 52-week range is $74.20 to $94.67 and the low was set this morning. Volume was more than 40% higher than the daily average of around 10.5 million. The The Dow component reported flat results and announced a $4.2 billion acquisition this morning.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) traded down 2.75% at $172.95. The stock’s 52-week range is $141.16 to $183.50. Volume was about 25% below the daily average of around 38 million. There company announced this morning that it plans to hire 1,000 IT workers to strengthen its position against e-commerce behemoth Amazon.
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Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) traded down 2.37% at $52.33 in a 52-week range of $33.23 to $54.26. Volume of about 20.7 million shares was about 30% below the daily average. The company sad it will shut down its New Devices group.
DowDuPont Inc. (NYSE: DWDP) traded down 2.15% at $66.6. The stock’s 52-week range is $59.29 to $77.08. Volume was about 40% lower than the daily average of around 9.5 million shares. The company had no specific news Thursday.
Of the Dow stocks, 5 are on track to close higher Thursday and 25 are set to close lower.
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