Wall Street drops, ends the month higher
Following a mixed start to the day, major equity indexes in the U.S. stayed under pressure as bank shares fell sharply and the crude oil sell-off continued. However, despite the recent pullback, the indexes were able to end the month with gains.
Concerns over supply glut heightened as the oil production in Libya continued to rise, pushing the barrel of West Texas Intermediate to its lowest level in more than two weeks. The barrel of WTI is now losing 2.7% and is trading at $48.30. The S&P 500 Energy Sector, .SPNY, dropped 0.4% on the day.
JPMorgan said that due to lower volatility, the bank's trading revenue could decline 15% in the current quarter compared with last year. Similarly, Bank of America announced that the trading revenue in the second quarter was seen to be 10% - 12% lower than last year, weighing on the financials.
Commenting on the selling pressure seen on the financial shares, "all the things that Trump told us were going to happen, which was infrastructure spend, deregulation, tax reform, people don’t believe any of those will happen, certainly the magnitude and with the speed the market had originally priced in," Ernesto Ramos, head of equities at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago, told Reuters.
According to Reuters, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 20.82 points, or 0.1%, to 21,008.65, the S&P 500 dropped 1.1 points, or 0.05%, to 2,411.81 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.67 points, or 0.08%, to 6,198.52.
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- US Pres. Trump: Will make my decision on Paris "very soon"
- Fed Beige Book: Majority of districts said firms expressed positive near-term outlook
- US: Treasury yields fall on last day of month
- US Pending Home Sales: April shows another drop - Wells Fargo
- Moody’s: US GDP to grow about 2.4% in 2017 - LiveSquawk