Disney, United Technologies Balance the Dow Friday

September 14, 2018: Markets opened higher again Friday but none of the major indexes seemed able to hold on. After dipping into the red early in the afternoon, all three are back to within inches of the break-even line. Financial services and tech stocks performed best while defensive stocks lagged. The share price decline coincided with a report that Trump has approved the imposition of his threatened $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods.

Equity indexes traded very near the break-even line just minutes before the closing bell. The closing tally could show either a small gain or a small loss for any of the indexes.

WTI crude oil for October delivery settled at $68.99 a barrel, up about 0.6% on the day and gained 1.8% for the week. December gold dropped about 0.6% to settle at $1,201.10. Equities were heading for a narrowly lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 0.01% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.02%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.02%.

Bitcoin futures (XBTU8) for September delivery traded at $6,480, up about 0.9% on the Cboe after opening at $6,450 this morning. The trading range today was $6,345 to $6,575.

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The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Friday was The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) which traded down 1.32% at $109.21. The 52-range on the stock is $96.80 to $117.90. Volume was about 40% below the daily average of around 7.1 million.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) traded down 1.20% at $223.69. The stock’s 52-week range is $149.16 to $229.67. Volume was about equal to the daily average of around 26.9 million shares.

The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Friday was United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) which traded up 1.49% at $137.54. The stock’s 52-week range is $112.65 to $139.24. Volume was about equal to the daily average of around 3.8 million.

The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) traded up XX% at $1.09 in a 52-week range of $246.21 to $374.48. Volume was about 30% below the daily average of around 3.2 million shares.

Of the Dow stocks, 16 were set to close higher Friday and 14 were on track to close lower.

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