Stocks inch to new records; S&P 500 up 4 straight weeks

The last two days have been lacklustre for stocks, with the S&P 500 dipping on Thursday, in comparison to the strong run they had been on. That slowdown was more a result of investors looking to cash in some profits than on any fear or need to get out of the market, said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade.

“People don’t want unnecessary risk heading into a three-day weekend,” he said. “This is more about taking off risk than about aggressive selling.”

U.S. markets will be closed Monday for Presidents Day.

Kinahan pointed to relative calmness in the markets for the VIX index, which measures expectations for upcoming volatility in the S&P 500, and for gold, a traditional landing spot when investors are nervous.

Kraft Heinz surged to the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after it made an offer to buy European consumer goods giant Unilever. Unilever rejected the bid, which offered 18 per cent more than where Unilever’s shares closed on Thursday, and called it too low.

Kraft Heinz, which is behind the Lunchables and Oscar Mayer brands, jumped $9.37, or 10.7 per cent, to $96.65. U.S.-listed shares of Unilever, which sells Breyers ice cream and Dove soap, surged $5.96, or 14 per cent, to $48.53.

Campbell Soup had the biggest drop in the S&P 500 after the company surprised analysts by reporting weaker revenue in its latest quarter than a year earlier. Its earnings were better than Wall Street had forecast, however. Shares fell $4.07, or 6.5 per cent, to $58.48.

General Mills fell $2.31, or 3.8 per cent, to $59.23 after it warned of tougher times ahead. It said weaker-than-expected U.S. sales of yogurt and soup pushed it to cut its sales and profit forecast for its fiscal year, which ends in May.

Treasury yields gave back some of the gains they made earlier in the week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.42 per cent from 2.45 per cent late Thursday. The two-year yield dipped to 1.19 per cent from 1.21 per cent, and the 30-year Treasury yield sank to 3.02 per cent from 3.05 per cent.

In European stock markets, the French CAC 40 index fell 0.7 per cent, Germany’s DAX was virtually flat and the U.K. FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.6 per cent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.3 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi index slipped 0.1 per cent.

The dollar fell to 112.93 Japanese yen from 113.11 yen late Thursday. The euro fell to $1.0607 from $1.0677, and the British pound fell to $1.2416 from $1.2497.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 4 cents to settle at $53.40 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 16 cents to close at $55.81 a barrel. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $2.83 per 1,000 cubic feet, wholesale gasoline fell nearly 1 cent to $1.52 per gallon and heating oil rose a fraction of a penny to $1.64 per gallon.

Gold fell $2.50 to settle at $1,239.10 per ounce, silver fell 4 cents to $18.03 per ounce and copper fell 1 cent to $2.71 per pound.

Stan Choe, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Stocks inch to new records; S&P 500 up 4 straight weeks

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