Dow dropped 127, decliners over advancers 2-1 & NAZ gained 11. The MLP index lost 3+ to the 171s & the REIT index was off fractionally to 403. Junk bond funds fluctuated & Treasuries had limited selling. Oil fell to the 64s & gold was about even at 1730 (more on both below).
AMJ (Alerian MLP Index tracking fund)
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
From Japanese soil, Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed China's sweeping use of “coercion and aggression” on the intl stage & warned that the US will mount pushback if necessary. “China uses coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet, and assert maritime claims in the South China Sea that violate international law,” Blinken said. “We’re united in the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, where countries follow the rules, cooperate whenever they can, and resolve their differences peacefully. And in particular, we will push back if necessary when China uses coercion or aggression to get its way,” he added. Blinken's comments come a handful of days before he & national security advisor Jake Sullivan hold high-level, in-person talks with Chinese representatives. Blinken & Sullivan will meet with the People's Republic of China's Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, & Wang Yi, the foreign minister in Alaska. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that Beijing hopes that a stronger US-Japan relationship will not harm others in the region. “We think the cooperation and communication between Japan and the U.S. should strengthen regional understanding and trust, should be beneficial to cooperation among countries in the region and beneficial to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and that it shouldn’t target any third party or harm the interests of any third party,” he said. Pres Biden, who spoke to Chinese Pres Xi Jinping last month, has previously said that his approach to China would be different from his predecessor's in that he would work more closely with allies in order to mount pushback against Beijing. “We will confront China’s economic abuses,” Biden said in a speech, describing Beijing as America’s “most serious competitor.” “But we’re also ready to work with Beijing when it’s in America’s interest to do so. We’ll compete from a position of strength by building back better at home and working with our allies and partners.”
Blinken warns China to not use ‘coercion and aggression’ to get its way during first trip to Asia
Gold futures climbed to settle at a 2-week high, finding support ahead of the outcome of a 2-day Federal Reserve meeting that’s expected to see policy makers reiterate their current policy stance. Prices for the precious metal also rose in the wake of data released today that revealed that sales are US retailers in Feb fell 3% due to a lapse in gov aid & unusually bad weather. Industrial production also fell last month by 2.2% versus expectations for a gain of 0.5%. Gold for Apr delivery tacked on $1 to settle at $1730 an ounce. That was the highest most-active contract finish since Mar 2. Gold remains down more than 8% for the year to date, having felt pressure from a rising $ & a bond-market selloff that’s pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury note higher for 6 straight weeks. Higher yields raise the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like gold.
Gold prices end at a 2-week high ahead of Fed decision
Oil futures marked a 3rd straight decline, with US benchmark crude trading below later-dated futures, as traders bet that domestic crude supplies climbed for a 4th week in a row, in the wake of last month's Texas deep freeze. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported for last week that US crude inventories rose by 13.8M barrels. That followed a hefty 21.6M-barrel climb the week before as domestic refinery activity continued to recover from mid-Feb winter storms in Texas. Supplies also rose by 1.3M barrels in the latest week. The forecast expected another crude supply increase, albeit a more modest one, of 400K barrels when the EIA reports its current figures tomorrow. West Texas Intermediate crude for Apr fell 59¢ (0.9%) to settle at $64.80 a barrel. The May WTI contract ended the session at $64.86 & has traded at a premium to the nearby month for 3 sessions, a condition known as contango, which can encourage investors to put oil into storage for later sale. May Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost 49¢ (0.7%) at $68.39 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Crude prices shook off the rising inventories previously, aided by strong falls in gasoline & other products. But analysts said the size of the buildup, a persistently firmer tone for the $, a troubled vaccine rollout in Europe & jitters over the potential for COVID-19 variants to cause problems in the US, were sufficient to cool a crude rally that still sees both WTI & Brent up more than 30% year-to-date.
Oil settles lower as traders bet on a fourth-weekly rise in U.S. crude inventories
AstraZeneca (AZN) said that it will supply the US gov
with an additional 500K doses of its experimental, long-acting
antibody-based Covid-19 combination treatment that aims to protect those
who aren't able to be vaccinated. The $205M agreement to supply the treatment—called AZD7442—builds on a deal the
Anglo-Swedish drug manufacturer struck last year with the Dept of
Health & Human Services & the Dept of Defense (DoD). Under that deal, announced in Oct, the US invested $486M for the development & supply of 100K doses of AZD7442, with an
option to acquire up to an additional one million doses in 2021. AZN
has a separate agreement to supply the DoD with 100K doses,
bringing potential US supplies of the treatment to 700K doses in
2021, & the total value of current agreements with the US gov
to $726M. The stock rose 1.28.
If you would like to learn more about AZN, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/AZN?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
AstraZeneca to Supply Extra 500,000 Doses of Covid-19 Treatment to U.S.
Dow Jones Industrials
No comments:
Post a Comment