News that the United States has completed trade negotiations with the United Kingdom has led major stock indices on the New York Stock Exchange to start strongly. Expectations that negotiations with other countries will also proceed smoothly were reflected.
As of 11:10 a.m. Eastern Time on the 8th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading at 41,254.95, up 140.98 points (0.34%) from the previous session.
The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index was up 15.10 points (0.27%) at 5,646.38, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 75.61 points (0.43%) at 17,813.77.
Earlier, President Donald Trump held a press conference in the Oval Office this morning to announce the results of the trade negotiations with the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom has decided to lower non-tariff barriers on U.S. products and increase accessibility for U.S. beef and ethanol. Detailed discussions are expected to occur over the next few weeks.
As this news broke, stock indices reduced their gains because, while the U.S. and the UK reached a trade agreement, specific details have not yet been disclosed.
By sector, there was a mixed trend, with energy and industrials rising over 1%. The 'Magnificent Seven,' referring to seven major tech companies, saw all but Nvidia trending upwards. Tesla was up more than 2%, while Apple and Alphabet saw gains around 1%. Particularly, Alphabet is rebounding after a 7% drop the previous day.
Meanwhile, the number of new unemployment insurance claims in the United States fell below expectations. According to the weekly unemployment insurance claims report released by the U.S. Department of Labor, new claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending May 3 were reported at 228,000, seasonally adjusted. This figure marks a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week and is below the market expectation of 230,000.
U.S. wholesale inventories continued to rise for the third consecutive month. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, as of the end of March, wholesale inventories were recorded at $907.5 billion after adjusting for seasonal characteristics and the number of transaction days. This reflects an increase of 0.4% compared to February's figures.
Meanwhile, unit labor costs in the U.S. for the first quarter exceeded market expectations. The Labor Department reported that the preliminary figure for non-farm sector unit labor costs in the first quarter was 122.2, reflecting a 5.7% annualized increase compared to the previous quarter. Market expectations were at 5.1%.
In contrast, European stock markets were generally strong, excluding the UK. The Euro Stoxx 50 index was up 1.07%. The German DAX index rose 0.83%. Conversely, the UK FTSE index seemed to reflect the results of trade negotiations with the U.S., declining by 0.37%.
International oil prices resumed their rebound. As of 11:15 a.m., the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for June delivery surged 2.63% to $59.60 per BARREL, and the global benchmark Brent crude for July delivery increased by 2.36% to $62.56 per BARREL.