April 20, 2018: Markets opened lower again Friday and again there was no economic news of note. The President tweeted out  a jab at OPEC following a report that the cartel and its partners wanted crude prices to go back to $100. 10-year Treasury yields remained just above 2.9% and GE reported better-than-expected first quarter results. Nothing was enough to get traders in a buying mood.
WTI crude oil for May delivery settled at $68.38 a barrel, up 0.1% for the day and up 1.5% for the week. The May contract expired today. June gold dropped about 0.8% on the day to settle at $1,338.30. Equities were headed for a lower close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded down 0.95% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.97%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 1.35%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTJ8) for April delivery traded at $8,550, up about 3.6% on the CBOE after opening at $8,280 this morning. The digital currency’s trading range for the day was $8,240 to $8,600.
The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage loss ahead of the close Friday was Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) which traded down 3.9% at $166.06. The stock’s 52-week range is $141.85 to $183.50. Volume was about more than 50% higher than the daily average of around 38 million. There company had no specific news.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) traded down 1.99% at $144.76. The stock’s 52-week range is $139.13 to $171.13. Volume was about 15% higher than the daily average of around 5.2 million. The company had no specific news Friday.
Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) traded down 1.36% at $152.81. The stock’s 52-week range is $93.81 to $173.24. Volume was about half the daily average of around 6.1 million shares. The company had no specific news Friday.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) traded down 1.68% at $51.35 in a 52-week range of $33.23 to $54.36. Volume of about 21.6 million shares was about 30% below the daily average. The company had no specific news.
Of the Dow stocks, 25 are on track to close higher Friday and 5 are set to close lower.
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