September 7, 2018: Markets opened lower Friday and the Dow never made it out of the red for the entire session. The employment report this morning was solid if not inspiring, but more China tariff talk cooled any enthusiasm for equities. Tech stocks traded higher but not by much and most of the other sectors traded down, led by real estate and utilities.
WTI crude oil for October delivery settled at $67.75 a barrel, down just 2 cents on the day but down about 2.9% for the week. The weekly oil rig count was down two this week. December gold dropped 0.3% to settle at $1,200.40 and close the week down 0.5%. Equities were heading for a narrowly lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 0.32% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.25%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.27%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTU8) for September delivery traded at $6,385, down about 0.4% on the Cboe after opening at $6,415 this morning. The trading range today was $6,280 to $6,500.
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The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Friday was Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) which traded down 1.52% at $46.54. The 52-range on the stock is $35.08 to $57.60. Volume was about 40% lower than the daily average of around 25 million.
United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) traded down 1.27% at $131.82. The stock’s 52-week range is $109.28 to $139.24. Volume was about 25% below the daily average of around 7.1 million.
The Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE: TRV) traded down 1.21% at $130.21 in a 52-week range of $114.48 to $150.55. Volume was about half the daily average of around 1.7 million shares.
The Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) traded down 1.19% at $81.67. The stock’s 52-week range is $70.73 to $94.67. Volume was about equal to the daily average of around 7.8 million shares.
Of the Dow stocks, 12 were set to close higher Friday and 18 were on track to close lower.
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