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Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment BloombergVodafone Group Plc has acknowledged that it found vulnerabilities going back years with equipment supplied by Huawei Technologies Co. for the carrier's ...
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© Reuters. Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Amy Caren Daniel
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, with the and the Nasdaq hitting record highs, as consumer spending rose in March and benign inflation data underscored the Federal Reserve's accommodative stance on interest rates.
Hopes of a trade resolution, upbeat earnings and a dovish Fed have been powering a rally in the benchmark index this year. The index crossed its record high of 2,940.91 hit on Sept. 21 for the first time this year, restoring investors' faith in the decade-long bull run.
A Commerce Department report showed U.S. consumer spending increased by the most in more than 9-1/2 years in March, but price pressures remained muted, with a key inflation measure posting its smallest annual gain in 14 months.
Tame inflation may lead the central bank to cut interest rates, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in a television interview on Monday.
"We're in a sweet spot where the rates are low and the economy is strong and there is no possibility of rates rising, and that is an environment that markets like," said Paul Brigandi, managing director and head of trading at Direxion in New York.
"The strength of the consumer and the overall economy doing well leads to strength in banks as a strong consumer leads to more lending activity."
Financial companies rose 1.41%, leading gains among the 11 major S&P sectors, while the banking sector gained 2.12%.
The Federal Reserve starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday, at the end of which a decision on interest rates will be announced.
In yet another busy week of earnings, about 160 S&P 500 companies, including Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), are set to report their quarterly results.
Analysts now expect profits of S&P 500 companies to fall just 0.2%, a sharp improvement from a 2% fall estimated at the beginning of the month, according to Refinitiv data.
As trade talks enter their last leg, U.S. negotiators head to China on Tuesday to try to hammer out details to end the protracted tariff spat between the two countries.
At 13:04 p.m. ET the was up 34.32 points, or 0.13%, at 26,577.65. The S&P 500 was up 7.45 points, or 0.25%, at 2,947.33 and the was up 21.29 points, or 0.26%, at 8,167.69.
The defensive utilities and real estate, led the declines among the seven major S&P sectors trading in the red.
Among stocks, Ingersoll-Rand jumped 5.93%, the most among S&P companies, after the Wall Street Journal reported Gardner Denver Holdings Inc is nearing a deal to acquire a unit of the air conditioner maker.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.83-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 36 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 69 new highs and 19 new lows.
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Burger King plans to roll out Impossible Whopper across the United States WJW FOX 8 News ClevelandBurger King's test of a vegetarian version of its signature Whopper was such a success, the chain is planning to roll the Impossible Whopper out nationally this ...
View full coverage on Google NewsTORONTO — Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported its first-quarter profit fell compared with a year ago as comparable sales at its Tim Hortons locations fell.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported a profit attributable to common shareholders of US$135 million or 53 cents per diluted share compared with a profit of $148 million or 59 cents per diluted share a year ago.
U.S.-listed shares of Restaurant Brands fell 3.8 per cent to US$63.94 premarket.
On an adjusted basis, the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King and Popeyes restaurants said it earned $255 million or 55 cents per diluted share for the quarter, down from an adjusted profit of $314 million or 66 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 58 cents per share for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
Revenue in the three-month period ended March 31 totalled nearly $1.27 billion, up from $1.25 billion a year ago.
The increase came as comparable store sales at Tim Hortons fell 0.6 per cent, while Burger King comparable sales increased 2.2 per cent. Popeyes comparable sales increased 0.6 per cent.
With file from Reuters
Companies in this story: (TSX:QSR)
On Monday, in a decision that rocked oil market participants around the world, the Trump administration announced that they will not be renewing or extending oil waivers they had granted to eight counties allowing them to continue purchasing Iranian oil in reduced quantities despite U.S. sanctions. The original six-month grace period granted by these “significant reduction exceptions” ends on May 1, and Washington is demanding that the nations previously allowed to continue buying Iranian crude immediately and unilaterally cut Tehran off. For many, the decision came as a shock, and many nations dependent on Iranian oil are now scrambling to determine just what that means for the future.
One major group, however, seems surprisingly unruffled. Even after Trump mentioned the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries by name, suggesting that they will be stepping up to fill in any supply gaps once Tehran is edged out, members from OPEC themselves have remained extremely measured on the issue, saying that they will not be rushing to ramp up production.
On Wednesday Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that the kingdom will not be taking any immediate action to increase oil production, adding that they respond to market fundamentals as opposed to pricing and that the nation, the top oil exporter in the world, will remain focused on maintaining a balanced global oil market above all other concerns. “Inventories are actually continuing to rise despite what is happening in Venezuela and despite the tightening of sanctions on Iran. I don’t see the need to do anything immediately,” Falih was quoted by CNBC in Riyadh. “Our intent is to remain within our voluntary (OPEC) production limit.” Falih added that his country would “be responsive to our customers, especially those who have been under waivers and those whose waivers have been withdrawn.”
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This is not to say that Saudi Arabia thinks that the ending of U.S. sanctions waivers will not have an impact on global crude supply and the global oil market as a whole. “We think there will be an uptick in real demand but certainly we are not going to be pre-emptive and increase production,” al-Falih said.
Saudi Arabia is not the only OPEC country vocally taking an unhurried, reserved public stance. On Tuesday, one day after the Trump administration’s waiver-ending announcement, Kuwait's oil minister Khaled Al Fadhel told reporters that OPEC will hold off on making any decisions on the matter until after OPEC members meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in May and had the opportunity to thoroughly review prices.
That being said, the end of Iranian crude waivers will be a major topic of discussion at the meeting on May 19. "I am sure the topic of American sanctions will be a hot topic to be discussed [at the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting in Jeddah in May]," Fadhel told reporters in Tokyo. When pressed to comment about whether OPEC will review its output policy in light of Monday’s announcement, Fadhel elaborated, "A decision will be made only after the review of [oil] prices and how that influences the prices" adding that, "Kuwait as a country, a member in OPEC and a founder in OPEC, we always seek stabilization of [oil] prices across the world." As to whether Kuwait is ready to ramp up its own oil production to meet any new demand left in Iranian oil’s absence, Fadhel shrugged off a sense of urgency, saying simply: "As a minister of oil, we have not discussed this issue as of now."
OPEC has another meeting scheduled in Vienna, Austria on June 25, when the participating nations will discuss whether or not they will extend their prior agreement to slash OPEC producers’ output by 1.2 million b/d to continue past the end of June. The current agreement, set to expire at the end of June, allows an exception to production cuts for Iran, as well as Venezuela and Libya. A follow-up meeting with non-OPEC signatories will be held the next day.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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