Benzinga - by Akanksha Bakshi, Benzinga Editor.
On Friday, May 31st, the U.S. stock markets closed mixed, with the Dow and S&P 500 ending higher—the Dow posted its most significant daily gain since November 2023, fueled by month-end repositioning.
This activity helped drive significant gains across all major indexes for May.
The economic data showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure remained steady at 2.7% year-on-year in April 2024, meeting economist expectations but keeping investors wary of potential rate cuts.
Almost all sectors of the S&P 500 finished in the green, led by a rise in the energy sector, while the technology sector ended slightly down.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.51% and closed at 38,686.32. The S&P 500 gained 0.80%, ending the day at 5,277.51, while the Nasdaq Composite fell slightly by 0.01%, finishing the session at 16,735.02.
Asian Markets Today
- On Monday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.16%, ending the session at 38,940.50, led by gains in Gas & Water, Chemical, Petroleum & Plastic, and Finance & Investment.
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index closed higher by 0.77% at 7,761.00, led by gains in the Financials, A-REITs, and Utilities sectors.
- India’s Nifty 50 was up 3.42% at 23,302.35, and the Nifty 500 closed higher by 3.42% at 21,825.65.
- China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.27%, ending the session at 3,078.49, while the Shenzhen CSI rose 0.25%, closing at 3,588.75.
- The Caixin manufacturing PMI for May was 51.7, exceeding expectations of 51.6 and up from 51.4 the previous month. This contrasts with the official PMI, which indicated a contraction in China’s manufacturing.
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended the session higher by 1.79% at 18,403.04.
- The European STOXX 50 index was up 0.70%.
- Germany’s DAX gained 0.87%.
- France’s CAC rose 0.35%.
- U.K.’s FTSE 100 traded higher by 0.21%.
- Crude Oil WTI was trading lower by 0.21% at $76.83/bbl, and Brent was down 0.17% at $80.97 bbl.
- Natural Gas gained 5.10% to $2.719.
- Gold was trading higher by 0.05% at $2,347.00; Silver rose 0.01% to $30.440, while Copper was up 0.23% to $4.6128.
Dow futures were down 0.11%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.11%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures gained 0.36%.
Forex at 06:00 AM ET
The U.S. Dollar Index gained 0.05% to 104.73, USD/JPY was down 0.19% at 157.01, and USD/AUD rose 0.08% to 1.5062.
Photo by Pavel Bobrovskiy via Shutterstock
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