Wall Street tumbles on tobacco and tech, commodities soften after wild ride

20 Apr 2018 2049 | World Travel News

People walk by the New York Stock Exchange on January 20, 2018 in New York City. — AFP picNEW YORK, April 20 ― Tobacco and tech stocks dragged down Wall Street yesterday, while oil prices softened and other commodities walked back huge gains after a wild ride.

A bump in long-dated US Treasury yields steepened the curve after two weeks of flattening, and supported a stronger dollar.

Robust corporate earnings had boosted shares this week, but a tepid forecast on smartphone demand sent stocks from Apple to chipmakers tumbling on Thursday.

Tobacco company Philip Morris plunged as much as 17.7 per cent after announcing weak results and forecasts, dragging down the S&P 500 index and rival Altria.

Oil prices softened after having spiked to highs not seen since 2014. US crude fell 0.48 per cent to US$68.14 per barrel and Brent was last at US$73.61, up 0.18 per cent on the day.

“I do think we could see US$70 pretty quick, but I want to caution that maybe we’ll see the market level out a little bit in a few weeks,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at PRICE Futures Group in Chicago.

Commodities were buoyed by talk that Saudi Arabia had its sights set on US$80 to US$100 a barrel of oil. Nickel and aluminium also rose on fears over the impact of US sanctions on Russian aluminium producers, including Rusan.

Nickel initially jumped by the most in 6-1/2 years and aluminium prices reached their highest since 2011.

But the metals later turned sharply negative, with analysts saying the gains were overdone.

The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity total return index opened on Thursday near its highest since mid-2015, before giving back all its gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 83.18 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 24,664.89, the S&P 500 lost 15.51 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 2,693.13 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 57.18 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 7,238.06.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.02 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.25 per cent.