Updated 4:50 p.m. ET
Dow ends higher, crude rises
The Dow was up nicely, and so were industrial and staples stocks.
But chips pulled back in trading on Thursday, Jan. 8.
Defense stocks were leaders among industrial shares, led by Huntington Ingalls, Lockheed Martin, and L3 Harris Technologies. These were all up more than 6% as President Donald Trump indicated he wanted to boost defense spending 50% to $1.5 trillion in the 2027 fiscal year, Bloomberg reported.
Even RTX Corp. was up 1.4%, a day after the president slammed the company for what he called excessive buybacks and slow production. The Trump administration has been pushing for defense contractors to invest more in their businesses, rather than buying back shares, The Wall Street Journal noted. The latter practice often boosts share prices.
At the close, the Dow Jones industrials were up 270 points or 0.6% to 49,266, as the average moves toward topping 50,000 for the first time.
The S&P 500 Index was basically unchanged at 6,921. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off 104 points, or 0.5%, to 23,480, and the Nasdaq-100 Index dropped 147 points to 25,507.
Investors will be primed to react to the Labor Department’s December jobs report. The consensus estimate for a gain of 70,000 jobs with an unemployment rate of 4.7%. Torsten Slok of Apollo Global Management told CNBC he thinks the job gains will be bigger.
Crude oil rise on Trump’s Venezuela plans
Crude oil settled up $1.77 to $557.76 per 42-gallon gallon as the president said he expected the United States to dominate Venezuela’s vast oil resources for years to come. Energy shares were higher, and the sector, up 3.4% this afternoon, was the best performer in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
The Trump Administration was already blocking most Venezuelan oil exports and seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday. He faces narco-terrorism charges in the United States.
A White House meeting on Friday will draw more than 20 executives from to talk about how to revive the Venezuelan oil industry, Bloomberg reported. They include representatives from Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips and Chevron.
As I noted Tuesday, the industry has suffered for years from mismanagement, fraud and underinvestment.
Separately, gold was flat at $4,450 per troy ounce. Silver fell $2.42 at $74.72, and copper fell about 6 cents a pound to $5.47 per pound.
Lastly, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.176% as economic data released Thursday suggested a more buoyant economy ahead of Friday’s jobs report.
Booze stocks rise
Beverage stocks also are among the early leaders, led by Constellation Brands. Also higher are Molson Coors and Brown-Forman. A big reason: new dietary guidelines from the Trump Administration. Gone are specific limits on alcohol consumption. Now, the guidelines, in place until 2030, advised being careful, especially pregnant women, alcoholics and people using specific medications.
Additionally, Costco Wholesale and Target are among the leaders in the staples category.
Tech stocks slide lower
The S&P technology sector was the one losing group in the S&P 500, but that was enough to keep the index flat. SanDisk was off more than 11%. Also slumping were Western Digital and Seagate Technology.
But Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies were also lower.
Oil up, precious metals lower
Crude oil was higher at $56.79 per 42-gallon barrel. Gold was down slightly at $4,162 per troy ounce, and silver had fallen 2.9% to $75.37 an ounce.
The 10-year Treasury yield was up slightly at 4.18%.
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