
Stocks Close Out Massive Week With Quiet Gains
Wall Street was far quieter than normal on Friday after an eventful week as traders escaped the office early for the long Independence Day weekend.
The S&P 500 had traded under 400 million shares by close Friday, a fraction of the three-month daily average of 641 million shares.
Stocks struggled to hold onto gains through the final two hours of trading. The S&P 500 was up 0.19%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.10%, and the Nasdaq added 0.41%.
Crude oil added to gains in the afternoon session despite the number of active oil rigs in the U.S. rising over the past week. Active oil-drilling rigs climbed by 11 to 341, according to Baker Hughes data. Prices have been boosted recently by fairly consistent declines in U.S. inventories and production.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed 1.7% higher at $49.13 a barrel on Friday afternoon.
"The petroleum markets are seeing some light volume consolidation ahead of the long U.S. Independence Day weekend, with firmer equities and a weaker U.S. dollar as background financial supports for crude oil," Tim Evans, energy futures analyst at Citi, said earlier in the session.
Wall Street began the week in sharp decline after the shock of Friday's pro-Brexit vote, before snapping into recovery mode. Stocks recovered from the Brexit selloff on hopes of increased monetary stimulus from the world's central banks. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney fueled those hopes on Thursday when he noted that the central bank would likely need to implement further easing.
In economic news, manufacturing activity in the U.S. continued to recover in June from a rough start to the year as the headwinds of a stronger U.S. dollar and weaker global demand began to ease. The ISM Manufacturing Index rose to 53.2 in June from 51.3. Analysts expected a reading of 51.5.
"The overall tone of this report was encouraging, suggesting that the recent upswing in U.S. manufacturing sector activity is being sustained, which will be interpreted at the (Federal Reserve) as further signs that the U.S. economy is continuing to dig itself out of the recent slump," said Millan L. B. Mulraine, deputy chief U.S. macro strategist at TD Securities. "Moreover, the steady gains in the various forward-looking indicators suggest that this positive momentum is likely to be sustained in the coming months."
A separate read on the manufacturing activity showed June levels at their best in three months. The Markit's U.S. PMI Manufacturing Index increased to 51.3 in June from 50.7.
Construction spending fell in May, according to the Census Bureau. The measure declined 0.8%, a surprising reading that conflicted with estimates of a 0.6% increase. Residential spending was flat from April's reading, while nonresidential spending declined 1.3%.
Car sales mainly came in strong last month. For June, Ford (F) - Get Report vehicle sales rose 6.4% thanks to strength in its truck segment, and Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) - Get Report reported a 6.5% increase in its auto sales over June on strong demand for its Jeep brand. General Motors (GM) - Get Report was the weak one of the bunch, reporting a 1.6% decline in U.S. sales in June. The drop was steeper than an expected 1.3% decline.









