Wall Street indexes Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed down Thursday with weaker-than-expected retail sales.
The blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a decrease of 0.41% to 25,439.39 points, while the S&P 500 dropped by 0.27%. The technology index Nasdaq Composite managed to en the session with an increase of 0.09%.
The markets declined at the start of the day due to the weaker-than-expected US retail sales. The sales declined by 1.2% in December, the biggest monthly decline since September 2009. The ministry also said sales fell by 0.9% in December, excluding shutdowns at gas stations.
The Federal Reserve banker, Lael Brainard, told that the negative risks to the economy "have certainly risen".
S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite scored 4 consecutive winning sessions. Both indexes, together with Dow Jones, were at least 1% up on Wednesday.
On bond markets, the yields on US government bonds declined as investors adjusted their portfolios to the softer comments of Federal Reserve officials since the beginning of the week. The yields on 10-year government bonds fell to 2.995% and 30-year Treasuries decreased to 3.295%. The yields on 2-year government bonds reached 2.799%.
In the forex markets, the dollar strengthened while investors expected a result of talks between the US and China on trade issues. The dollar index rose by 0.49% to 97.25 points, well above the weekly minimum of 96.626 points previously reached.
Corporate stocks performance
Netflix shares rose by more than 1.5%, while Alphabet and Apple appreciated by about 0.5%.
Networking giant Cisco Systems rose by 1.9% on Thursday after reporting fiscal second-quarter profit and revenue that beat analysts' forecasts, and after hiking its quarterly dividend by 6% and boosting its buyback plan by 15 billion USD. The company said it expects third-quarter earnings of 0.76 USD to 0.78 USD per share on revenue growth between 4% and 6%.
The stocks of Amazon.com fell by 1.06% after deciding not to "move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens" amid opposition to the online retailer's plans.
Coca-Cola shares tumbled 8.46% after posting a fourth-quarter profit in line with analysts' forecasts but noting that 2019 organic revenue growth would slow and comparable earnings likely would remain flat thanks in part to a stronger US dollar.
Corporate earnings reports
Coca-Cola issued a disappointing forecast of 4% growth in 2019 due to the global economic slowdown, a strong dollar, and political uncertainty. The company's sales declined by 6% to 7.1 billion USD for the last three quarters of 2018 and fell by 10% to 31.9 billion USD for the year. Coca-Cola blamed the decline on costs related to refranchising its bottling system and the strong dollar. The soda giant reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of 870 million USD, or 0.20 cents per share, up from a loss of 2.75 billion USD, or 0.65 USD per share, a year earlier. Coke said that freight costs negatively impacted its earnings this quarter. Deputy CFO John Murphy, who will take the reins from retiring CFO Kathy Waller in March, told analysts the company does not expect to see the same year-over-year freight increases in the US as in 2018.
Airbus has reported strong Full-Year 2018 consolidated financial results and has delivered on its guidance for all key performance indicators. The company’s consolidated revenues for 2018 totaled 64 billion EUR and its consolidated earnings before interest and taxes EBIT came to 5,834 million EUR, compared to 3,190 million EUR in 2017. This "reflects strong operational performance and programme execution across the Company". The report also highlighted that A380 deliveries are to cease in 2021 due to a lack of airline demand. That being said, at Airbus, a total of 800 commercial aircraft were delivered compared to 718 aircraft in 2017. This included 20 A220s, 626 of the A320 Family, 49 A330s, 93 A350s and 12 A380s. Furthermore, despite Airbus Helicopters delivering fewer units in 2018 compared to 2017 (356 compared to 409), revenues are stable year-on-year on a comparable basis. The report also stated that ‘higher revenues at Airbus Defence and Space were supported by its Space Systems and Military Aircraft activities’.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://financeandmarkets.com/sp-500-ended-its-4-day-positive-series/