US markets end mostly higher on Friday

26 Mar 2022 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly higher on Friday following choppy trade, after oil prices rebounded on the back of reports of a missile strike on a Saudi Aramco facility and as investors continued to weigh rising interest rates. Meanwhile, the European Union signed an agreement for the supply of liquefied natural gas to reduce reliance on Russian supply. On the sectoral front, substantial strength was visible among natural gas stocks, as reflected by the 4.8 percent spike by the NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index. The index reached its best closing level in almost five years amid a sharp increase by the price of natural gas. Airline stocks also turned in a strong performance on the day, resulting in a 1.8 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.

On the economic data front, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report showing pending home sales unexpectedly saw further downside in the month of February. NAR said its pending home sales index tumbled by 4.1 percent to 104.9 in February after plunging by 5.8 percent to a revised 109.4 in January. The continued decrease came as a surprise to participants, who had expected the index to rebound by 1.0 percent. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale. Meanwhile, revised data released by the University of Michigan showed consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell by more than initially estimated in the month of March. The report showed the consumer sentiment index for March was downwardly revised to 59.4 from the preliminary reading of 59.7. Street had expected the index to be unrevised.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153.3 points or 0.44 percent to 34,861.24 and S&P 500 was up by 22.9 points or 0.51 percent to 4,543.06, while Nasdaq fell 22.54 points or 0.16 percent to 14,169.3.

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