Market Wrap For Friday, August 29: Gas Prices Low Into Holiday Weekend Despite Crude Rally

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Labor day weekend is rolling in with the lowest gas prices in almost five years.

The drop in fuel prices is driven by a multi week sell off in crude oil. At last check, oil futures were last trading at 95.87, up on a 1.4 percent rally. Despite Friday’s boost, the commodity is still trading at a discount to the summer’s $107 highs.

Major Indexes

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18.8 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 17,098.

The S&P 500 rose 6.6 points, or 0.3 percent, to finish at 2,003.

The Nasdaq added 22.6 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,580.

Top Story

Apple’s AAPL iPhone 6, which is expected to be released on September 9, is rumored to have a mobile payment system. Analysts are calling the system a game changer and are speculating it will put pressure on existing payment systems, such as Paypal.

Stock Movers

Criteo SA CRTO shares shot up 22.5 percent to $37.55 following a Les Echos report that Publicis has restarted talks to buy the company.

Shares of Veeva Systems VEEV got a boost, shooting up 20.1 percent to $29.97 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and issued a strong third-quarter outlook.

Splunk SPLK shares were also up, gaining 19.1 percent to $53.93 after the company reported upbeat results for the fiscal second quarter and lifted its forecast for the year.

Shares of Kandi Technologies Group KNDI were down 6.6 percent to $17.86 after the company announced that it has entered into an agreement for registered direct placement of $71 million of common stock and warrants.

Big Lots BIG shares tumbled 1.8 percent to $46.35 on Q2 results. Big Lots reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings and raised its FY14 earnings forecast. The company also announced a new $125 million share-repurchase program.

Pacific Sunwear of California PSUN was down 9.6 percent to $2.08 after the company posted in-line results for the second quarter and issued a weak forecast.

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Commodities

Oil futures had one of the strongest weeks of the year, led by Friday’s rally. The commodity has picked up over $3 on the week, or 3.2 percent. At last check, oil futures were trading at $95.88.

Gold futures were mostly flat for the day, last trading down 0.2 percent at $1,288. Friday’s trading follows the week’s trend of low volatility. The contracts gained about $1 over the past six sessions.

Currencies

The U.S. Dollar jumped in value Friday, finishing a strong week.. At last check, the PowerShares ETF UUP that tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.23 percent to $22.02.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair dropped 0.33 percent to $1.3139. This is the lowest the pair has traded in 2014. The currency temporarily traded lower in September 2013.

Global Markets

China’s Shanghai exchange shot 0.97 percent higher while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was flat. Japan’s Nikkei sold off 0.23 percent.

Europe was mostly down on the day. The Euro Stoxx 50 index, which tracks 50 eurozone blue chips gained 0.26 percent. England’s FTSE rose 0.2 percent, and France’s CAC rose 0.34 percent.

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Posted In: After-Hours CentergasGobalGoldOilPayment System
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