August 28, 2018: Markets opened higher again Tuesday and bravely bounced off the break-even line at around noon. Today’s gain has nearly evaporated in the last half-hour of trading. One bit of good news today: consumer confidence reached an 18-year high in August. The day’s best-performing sector has been real estate, followed by tech stocks. Energy was lagging.
WTI crude oil for October delivery settled at $68.53 a barrel, down 0.5% on the day. December gold dropped 0.1% to settle at $1,214.40. Equities were heading for a narrowly mixed close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded up 0.01% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.04%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.09%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTU8) for September delivery traded at $7,090, up about 5.5% on the Cboe after opening at $6,716.47 this morning. The trading range today was $6,716.47 to $7,110.
The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Tuesday was Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) which traded up 1.57% at $96.02. The stock’s 52-week range is $77.50 to $109.98. Volume was equal to the daily average of around 7.9 million.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) traded up 1.01% at $220.15. The 52-range on the stock is $149.16 to $220.54, and the high was posted today. Volume was about 20% below the daily average of around 24.2 million.
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) traded up 0.77% at $46.95. The stock’s 52-week range is $31.19 to $47.27 and the high was posted today. Volume was about 30% below the daily average of around 21.2 million shares.
McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) traded up 0.70% at $161.60 in a 52-week range of $146.84 to $178.70. Volume was about half the daily average of around 3.6 million shares.
Of the Dow stocks, 14 were set to close higher Tuesday and 16 were on track to close lower.
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