Stocks barely moved Friday, following a healthy run-up earlier in the week, tracking a sell-off on Wall Street where a plunge in retail giant Macy’s fanned concerns about the key US retail sector.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, closed flat at 7,815.53 Friday, as four of the six major sectors declined. The bellwether was up 14.3 percent since the start of the year.
The heavier index, representing all shares, lost 8 points, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 4,648.26, on a value turnover of P9 billion. Losers outnumbered gainers, 124 to 81, while 33 issues were unchanged.
Ten of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by MRC Allied Inc. which climbed 4.1 percent to P0.385 and port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. which gained 3.4 percent to P96.80. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. added 2.8 percent to finish at P86.90.
Meanwhile, global stocks were mixed as investors assessed global earnings and the appetite of U.S. consumers to keep spending.
Optimism has been high the past four days on solid US jobs data and moderate Emmanuel Macron’s landslide French presidential win Sunday, pushing some markets to multi-year highs.
But traders took a step back ahead of the weekend with confidence rattled by a series of below-par Chinese data and Donald Trump’s shock firing of the head of the FBI, which some fear could lead to a crisis that will knock the president’s economy-boosting agenda offline.
On Thursday, New York’s three main indexes turned negative after Macy’s announced a 39 percent fall in net profit, its latest in a series of weak readings that have have underscored the deterioration of bricks-and-mortar stores due to the rise of e-commerce.
The figures hit other big-name stores and with the retail sector a crucial driver of the world’s top economy, there are fears about the outlook for top retailers.
By the break on Friday Tokyo’s Nikkei index was down 0.7 percent from a 17-month high, while Sydney shed 0.7 percent and Singapore gave up 0.1 percent. Seoul, which closed Thursday at a record high, eased 0.4 percent.
But Hong Kong was up 0.1 percent after a four-day rally, while Shanghai — which has fallen about seven percent in the past month on worries about a state crackdown on leveraged investing — also gained 0.1 percent.
The dollar turned lower against its major peers, having enjoyed a surge Thursday on comments from a top Federal Reserve official backing three more interest rates this year.
The unit “is weighed down by the Trump/Comey sideshow which has seen the greenback move lower against” major currencies, Stephen Innes, a senior trader at forex firm OANDA, said in a commentary.
And on oil markets both main contracts pressed on with their recovery from last week’s sharp losses, with investors cheering a bigger-than-expected drop in US inventories and signs an OPEC output cut was kicking in. With AFP, Bloomberg