World stocks on Friday, June 23, appreciated and were poised for a modest gain to end the week as a fall in the dollar helped boost sagging oil prices.
The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies as preliminary data on U.S. factory and services activities in June fell short of analyst forecasts, stoking doubts about U.S. economic growth for the rest of 2017.
That drop in the greenback helped crude oil pull away from 10-month lows, although prices were still set for their worst first-half performance since 1997. On the week, both Brent and WTI crude have lost nearly 4 percent.
“Oil is probably trying to recoup some of the losses that they’ve had this week,” said Jim Davis, regional investment manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Springfield, Illinois.
U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.84 percent to $43.10 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $45.64, up 0.93 percent on the day.
The climb in crude helped lift energy stocks on Wall Street, with the group .SPNY up 0.8 percent as the best performing of the major S&P sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 14.29 points, or 0.07 percent, to 21,411.58, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 4.95 points, or 0.20 percent, to 2,439.45 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 15.91 points, or 0.26 percent, to 6,252.60.
“The data has been mixed today and it kind of reflects what has been going on all month and that is the economy, both globally and in the U.S., we are expanding but the pace of expansion is not accelerating,” Davis said.
The slide in energy prices in recent weeks has worsened the outlook for inflation, creating a problem for the world’s major central banks as they attempt to normalize interest rates after years of ultra-loose policy.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 lost 0.18 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.25 percent, Reuters reports.
