Stocks eke out gains as investors eye Fed chair’s speech

Investors maintained a holding pattern on Thursday in advance of US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s highly anticipated speech at Jackson Hole on Friday.

On low volumes, Wall Street’s main indexes rose in early trading on Thursday, supported by banks and mega-cap growth stocks.

In Ireland, meanwhile, an otherwise sleepy August session sprang to life thanks to positive interim results from a handful of big-name companies.

Dublin

The Iseq index gained 0.9 per cent in the session, pulled ahead by CRH and Irish Continental Group (ICG), both of which posted strong sets of interim results on Thursday.

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Building materials giant CRH was up nearly 3.9 per cent to €38.36 per share after raising its guidance for the rest of the year. Traders in Dublin said the Albert Manifold-headed group’s performance coupled with its confident outlook in the US and Europe has lifted it above competitors in both markets.

ICG, meanwhile, where first-half revenues jumped 85 per cent to €263.1 million, saw its share price climb 3.6 per cent to finish Thursday at €4.15 per share. Market sources said the company’s “operational excellence” was clear to investors, having developed its successful Dover-Calais route from a standing start over the past year and a half.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Providence Resources gave back 5.2 per cent to finish the session at €0.05 after chairman James Menton announced plans to stand down over the next three months. Other big names in the red on the day were housebuilder Glenveagh, down 2.3 per cent, Kingspan down 2 per cent, and Smurfit Kappa, which shed 0.6 per cent.

London

London’s blue-chip stock index bounced off two-week closing lows on Thursday, buoyed by energy and mining stocks, which received a lift from rising crude and metal prices.

The FTSE 100 index gained a modest 0.6 per cent after three consecutive sessions of losses with Chilean-owned miner Antofagasta up 2.6 per cent, Glencore up 1.7 per cent and Anglo American gaining 1.4 on the day.

Oil majors Shell and BP rose more than 1 per cent each, as crude prices were supported by the prospect of tighter supplies amid disruptions to Russian exports and the partial shutdown of a US refinery.

But despite a relatively positive set of August retail figures published by the Confederation of British Industry on Thursday, weaknesses were clear among some of the biggest names in British retail. Trades in Dublin said the outlook for consumers could be darkening with British energy regulator Ofgem poised to raise its October price cap on Friday. Shares in B&M European sunk 3.7 per cent while sportswear mega-chain JD Sports gave up 2.3 per cent.

Coca-Cola shares, meanwhile, tumbled close to 4.9 per cent.

Europe

European indexes eked out meagre gains for the second day in a row, after a bad run of sessions to start the week.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.3 per cent. The German Dax, also up 0.3 per cent, and the French Cac, up 0.1 per cent in the session, also received a lift from energy stocks and positive economic data.

Data also showed Germany’s economy expanded by 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, beating expectations, while a separate survey showed business morale fell in August as uncertainty among companies remained high and the economy was set to shrink in the third quarter.

Swedish oil exploration company Orron Energy gained 7.5 per cent while French-Dutch housebuilder WFD Inibail Rodamco closed the session up 3.9 per cent. Healthcare stocks also benefited with German pharma giant Bayer and medical device company Siemens Healthineers both up 2 per cent.

Moving in the opposite direction, German energy supplier Uniper shed 6.5 per cent after its Finnish majority owner Fortum posted a second-quarter net loss of €7.4 billion. Swedish apparel giant H&M declined 5 per cent, probably a negative read-through from the poor performance of retailers in the UK and elsewhere.

New York

Stocks traded well off session highs with investors eyeing Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday. The boss of the Fed is widely expected to restate his resolve to keep tightening monetary policy to fight inflationary spirals.

The S&P 500, up roughly 0.5 per cent, pared its advance by about half in another session of low volume that followed the slowest trading day of 2022 for US equities. Mega-caps like Amazon and Apple, up 1.6 per cent 0.7 per cent respectively rallied, though Tesla tumbled more than 1 per cent as its stock split took effect.

Weighing on the blue-chip Dow, Salesforce Inc slid 7.4 per cent as it cut its annual revenue and profit forecasts over “measured” spending from clients and a hit from a stronger dollar.