Oil Prices Rise on Economic Stimulus Hopes and Spending Cuts by US Producers

US Markets: Broader indices in the United States traded in green - particularly, the S&P 500 index traded 84.45 points or 3.07% higher at 2,831.01, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index expanded by 675.08 points or 2.83% higher at 24,526.10, and the technology benchmark index Nasdaq Composite traded higher at 8,191.64, up by 240.96 points or 3.03% against its previous day close (at the time of writing, before the U.S market close at 3:00 PM ET).

US News: On 10^th March 2020, as the Dow Jones recovered its losses from the last day of trading driven by easing of coordinated policy, Wall Street set a strong gain on the opening of Tuesday’s session. With monetary easing to boost the economy, led to the recovery of sentiments on Tuesday and traders expect a cut in the interest rate by the Federal Reserve for the second time in March. The Japanese government disclosed a package of USD 4 billion to fight the outbreak of COVID-19. During the trading session, many Asian shares zoomed along with US 10-year treasury bond yields which surged by more than double to 0.70 per cent from record lows in Tuesday’s session. Many market participants are hoping that global policy makers would come up with comprehensive and coordinated stimulus to cushion the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak. Oil has also recovered from the decline, and the shares of companies like Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp increased by over 6 per cent, while the shares of other oil manufacturers - Occidental Petroleum Corp, Apache Corp and Marathon Oil Corp surged in between 20 per cent and 32 per cent. Based on the positive sentiments, American Airlines shares rose by 4.5 per cent, and the company expect a fall in the fuel prices, which will result in cost savings in FY2020 to around USD 3 Billion. The banking stocks such as Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo & Co and Morgan Stanley witnessed an increase between 4.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent.

S&P 500 (SPX)

Top Performers*: Apache Corp, Lincoln National Corp, and Pioneer Natural Resources Co are top gainers and increased by 11.47%, 10.72% and 9.56% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Gilead Sciences Inc, Xylem Inc, and Ventas Inc are the top three laggards and decreased by 5.52%, 2.86% and 2.78% respectively.

NASDAQ Composite (IXIC)

Top Performers*: Aytu BioScience Inc, Safe-T Group Ltd, and Cypress Semiconductor Corp are top gainers and increased by 239.08%, 134.65% and 45.75% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Spherix Inc, Dynatronics Corp, and Co-Diagnostics Inc are the top three laggards and decreased by 42.24%, 30.46% and 30.42% respectively.

Top Performing Sectors*: Energy (up 4.36%), Technology (up 3.56%) and Industrials (up 2.86%).

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)

Top Performers*: Chevron Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, and Microsoft Corp are top gainers and increased by 5.79%, 5.68% and 4.92% respectively.

Worst Performers*: Verizon Communications Inc, Caterpillar Inc, and Boeing Co are the top three laggards and decreased by 2.33%, 1.11% and 0.13% respectively.

European Markets: The London’s broader equity benchmark index FTSE 100 traded at 5.54 points or 0.09% lower at 5,960.23, the FTSE 250 index closed on a flat note at 17,547.05, and the FTSE All-Share Index ended 1.88 points or 0.06% lower at 3,332.98 respectively. Another European equity benchmark index STOXX 600 ended down by 3.86 points or 1.14 per cent, at 335.64.

European News: In economic news, in a survey conducted by institute of directors, the business confidence in United Kingdom has hit a six-month low due to the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic scare. The survey last month has showed an increase in the business confidence levels as the  country came out of Brexit and many of the leading economic indicators of the country already starting to look upwards. The survey pointed out that the main reason for the fall in confidence due to fall in employee engagement levels and the uncertainty over how long it will take to contain the virus spread. It is worth noting here that United Kingdom has already reported 373 confirmed cases of the virus with six succumbing to the infection. In business news, M&G Plc today reported its full year financial results for 2019, with a strong asset under administration position of £352 billion. It is worth noting that the company was formed last year with its demerger from Prudential Plc and has been trading on the London Stock Exchange as an independent entity since. The company has lost 1.1 per cent of its share value in trading till the time of writing of this report today.

London Stock Exchange

Top Performers*: TULLOW OIL PLC (TLW), PERSHING SQUARE HOLDINGS LTD (PSH) and LOOKERS PLC (LOOK) are top gainers and increased by 14.41%, 13.46% and 12.90% respectively.

Worst Performers*: AMIGO HOLDINGS PLC (AMGO), DFS FURNITURE PLC (DFS) and FINABLR PLC (FIN) plunged by 7.20%, 6.99% and 6.28% respectively.

FTSE 100 Index

5 days FTSE 100 Index Performance (March-10-2020), before the market closed (Source: TR)

Top Gainers*: EVRAZ PLC (EVR), AVEVA GROUP PLC (AVV) and ANTOFAGASTA PLC (ANTO) traded in green zone and leapt up by 9.47%, 7.08% and 6.91% respectively.

Top Slackers*: M&G PLC (MNG), CARNIVAL PLC (CCL) and COCA-COLA HBC AG (CCH) were among the beaten down stocks and plunged by 2.90%, 2.72% and 1.03% respectively.

Shares with high volume*: (LLOY) LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC; (BP.) BP PLC; (BARC) BARCLAYS PLC.

Sectors in the positive zone*: Energy (up 5.08%), Basic Materials (up 4.05%), and Financials (up 2.85%).

Sector in the negative zone*: Utilities (Down 0.18%).

Currency Rates*: GBP/USD and EUR/GBP were trading at 1.2913 and 0.8745, respectively.

Bond Yields*: U.S 10-Year Treasuries yield was hovering at 0.749%, and the UK 10-Year Government Bond yield was trading at 0.281%, respectively.

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*At the time of writing