US equities pulled back from all-time highs on Thur. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 90.55 pts, or 0.25%, to close at 36,398.08. The S&P 500 Index fell 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.16%. The small cap Russell 2000 dropped 0.02%.
If the S&P 500 had managed to stay in the black, it would have been the index’s 71st record close of the year. During 2021, the S&P 500 closed at a record high on 28% of trading sessions.
It was a rebound on steroids for Chinese stocks listed on US exchanges on Thurs. After five sessions of losses, the Invesco Golden Dragon China ETF (PGJ US) jumped 9.5%. Tal Education (TAL US, +14.53%), Vipshop (VIPS US, +12.4%) and Alibaba (BABA US, +9.72%) were among some of the best performers.
Shares of Disney (DIS US, +0.68%), Netflix (NFLX US, +0.25%) and Discovery (DISCA US, +2.43%) rose on Thur. A Financial Times report on Wed that US video streamers are set to spend $115b on content in 2022.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cruise ships should be avoided even if passengers are vaccinated due to the risk of Covid-19. Shares of Carnival (CCL US, -1.25%), Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL US, -1.11%) and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH US, -2.59%) fell on Thur.
Tesla (TSLA US, -1.46%) retreated on Thur. That came after the EV-car maker recalled about 475,000 US vehicles to fix defects that could lead to accidents.
Shares of Biogen (BIIB US, -7.1%) slid after Samsung denied a report in South Korean media that it was in talks to the multinational biotechnology company.
The 10-year Treasury note yield slipped 4.13 basis points (bps) to 1.5083%.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Feb) contracts settled up $9.30, or 0.5%, at US$1,814.10/oz. March silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, rose 0.21 cents, or 0.9%, to end at US$23.06/oz.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.06% to 95.988.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up 9 cents at US$79.32/bbl and 43 cents at US$76.99/bbl respectively.
US natural gas futures fell 7% on Thurs to a six month low, following a slide in European natural gas prices. Gas futures linked to TTF, Europe’s wholesale gas price, fell as much as 12% to €84.90. Mild weather and increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows have helped pull prices.
European equity markets finished mixed on Thur. The UK FTSE los