Wall Street extended gains for the fourth consecutive session, but the rise was reduced at the end of the session on fears of “shutdown” extended after the failure of a new discussion concerning the boundary wall with Mexico. On the trade front, however, positive signs finally emerged after three days of meeting between the United States and China in Beijing. A US delegation stayed a day longer in Beijing for talks with the Chinese about the trade fight between both economic superpowers. This was widely regarded as a positive sign.
The Fed Minutes surprised by being much more accommodating than the December release, which had largely contributed to the stock market plunge. President Donald Trump even got mad from the negotiations with the Democrats because he thought it was “a waste of time”.
At the close, the Dow Jones Index on Wednesday gained 0.39% to 23,879 points, while the broad S & P 500 index finished up 0.41% to 2,584 pts, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0 , 87%, at 6.957 pts. The indexes increased further during the session, but they lost ground when Donald Trump slammed the door of a budget meeting, prolonging the “shutdown” and hardening his deadlock with the Democrats over funding.
The S & P 500 Energy Sector Index posted the best performance of the session with a gain of 1.5%. Oil stocks benefited from soaring oil prices, such as ExxonMobil (+0.5%), Chevron (+1.3%), ConocoPhillips (+3.3%), Transocean (+1.1%). Chesapeake Energy jumped 12.6% as the group announced that its fourth-quarter output, in terms of oil and gas, will be higher than the consensus of place.
The Apple share rose nearly 2 percent higher after encouraging comments from a Morgan Stanley analyst. In addition, the tech giant reportedly instructed suppliers to reduce the production of iPhones. Last week, Apple came up with a strong sales warning for the recent quarter due to disappointing demand in China.
