In Dow Jones news today, stock prices climbed after a strong earnings report from Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) helped push markets back toward record territory. Additionally, U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a tariff on steel.
Here are the numbers as of 2:00 p.m. Friday (June 30) for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
This morning, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported a nice bump in personal incomes across the country. However, both consumer spending and inflation levels were underwhelming in May. After two straight months of 0.4% gains in spending, May spending growth clocked in at just 0.1%.
A day after banking stocks received a big boost following the release of their stress test results, investors took gains off the table. Today's largest drags on the S&P 500 were Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). The markets continue to monitor updates from the U.S. Federal Reserve and speculate on the timing of the next interest rate hike. Today's lackluster report on inflation led many to believe that the Fed may not be able to hike rates again in 2017.
Energy Breakthrough:One gallon of this new "crystal fuel" could get you from New York to L.A. and back... seven times! Read more...
Gold prices fell again Friday and had their first monthly loss of 2017. Prices have been under pressure thanks to increased tightening in monetary policy by the Fed and a massive flow of capital out of safe-haven assets. However, we expect that the second half of 2017 will be one full of geopolitical uncertainty and more volatility than we've seen during the previous six months. Money Morning Resource Specialist Peter Krauth predicts that gold prices could rebound by more than 12% in the coming week thanks to one huge catalyst. Read more here.
The more Americans dig into the new healthcare bill, the less they like it. That's mainly because of large planned cuts to Medicaid over the next two decades. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), federal spending on Medicaid would decline by roughly 35% through 2036. But while pundits are screeching about the possible cuts, long-term liabilities remain the biggest challenge to the exploding national debt.
Crude oil prices had their first weekly gain since mid-May. The WTI crude oil price today added 2.1%. Brent crude gained 1.2%. Prices pushed higher after Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) reported the first weekly drop in U.S. rigs since January. Last week, the number of production rigs in operation declined by two. Despite today's uptick, oil prices had their worst six-month start since 1998.
Three Stocks to Watch Friday: TWTR, NKE, MU
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) is back in focus, but it has little to do with the company's user growth rates or its stock price. The Twitter news today centers on President Trump, who once again went out of his way to insult journalists at MSNBC. President Trump accused MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski of having a face lift.
In earnings news, shares of Nike Inc. (Nasdaq: NKE) jumped more than 11% after the firm easily topped Wall Street earnings and revenue expectations. Nike also announced a pilot program to sell its shoes and apparel on Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN). The company reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.60 on $8.7 billion in revenue. That topped consensus expectations of $0.50 on $8.6 billion.
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Shares of Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) fell more than 4% despite news that the Chinese tech giant topped earnings expectations after the bell yesterday. The downturn comes as a tech sell-off continued to rattle investor confidence. The firm reported strong growth and hiked its forecast for sales in cloud computing and mobile chip demand. Company CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said on a conference call Thursday that he expects the semiconductor industry to experience healthy demand through 2018.
Monday's U.S. Economic Calendar (all times EDT)
Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard Speaks at 4:35 a.m.
Gallup U.S. Consumer Spending Measure at 8:30 a.m.
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.