Caterpillar, Exxon Mobil Lift the Dow Tuesday
August 7, 2018 by Paul AusickAugust 7, 2018: Markets opened higher Tuesday and all three major indexes traded in the green for the entire session. Corporate earnings regained the spotlight and then this afternoon Elon Musk juiced Tesla shares by tweeting that he was thinking of taking the electric carmaker private. He even claimed to have financing lined up. Energy stocks performed best today, up nearly 1%, while defensive stocks lagged.
WTI crude oil for September delivery settled at $69.17 a barrel, up 0.2% for the day. December gold added 30 cents to settle at $1,218.00. Gold ETFs had a tough July as well the World Gold Council reported. Equities were heading for a higher close about 10 minutes before the bell as the Dow traded up 0.58% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 0.34%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.34%.
Bitcoin futures (XBTQ8) for August delivery traded at $7,095, up about 2.5% on the CBOE after opening at $6,855 this morning. The trading range today was $6,820 to $7,150.
The Dow stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Tuesday was Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) which traded up 2.26% at $142.63. The 52-range on the stock is $112.69 to $173.24, and the high was posted today. Volume of around 3.2 million was about 25% below the daily average.
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up 1.50% at $81.39. The stock’s 52-week range is $72.16 to $89.30. Volume was about 35% below the daily average of around 11.6 million shares.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) traded up 1.37% at $80.60. The stock’s 52-week range is $50.35 to $81.00. Volume was about a third below the daily average of around 6.3 million.
The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) traded up 1.39% at $351.38 in a 52-week range of $230.94 to $374.48. Volume was about 40% below the daily average of around 3.5 million shares.
Of the Dow stocks, 23 were set to close higher Tuesday and 7 were on track to close lower.
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