US Stock Futures and Oil Retreat as Rally Over OPEC Deal Fades
New York (Sept 29) Stock futures were slightly lower on Thursday in a soft retreat from a late-session rally in equities and oil a day earlier.
S&P 500 futures were down 0.06%, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 0.02%, and Nasdaq futures fell 0.09%.
Crude oil pulled back from big gains seen on Wednesday as traders questioned how much of an impact a deal among Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would have on an oversupplied market. OPEC agreed to limit oil production to 32.5 million barrels a day following a three-day energy meeting in Algeria. Members had shown reluctance to agree to any deal and cede market share.
"Let's not forget non-OPEC producers who would not be subject to any such agreement if it were indeed actually ratified," Stephen Guilfoyle, chief market economist at Stuart Frankel & Co., wrote in a note. "Curtailing output could just be handing over market share to others who will gladly seize it."
West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 0.3% to $46.92 a barrel on Thursday after settling Wednesday at its best level in three weeks.
It's a second busy day for Federal Reserve talk, which could illuminate how quickly the next rate hike could come. Topping the list, Fed Chair Janet Yellen will participate in the Kansas City Fed's Minority Bankers Forum via video conference in the evening. Yellen said on Wednesday that accommodative policy would need to be removed, though "probably not that much," if the economy continues to improve as expected.
Elsewhere, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will address the Global Interdependence Center's Central Banking Series in Dublin; Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart will speak at the 2016 Future of Florida Forum in Orlando; Fed Board Gov. Jerome Powell will deliver the keynote address at the Community Banking in the 21st Century conference; Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will speak in Rapid City, S.D., and Kansas City Fed President Esther George will give a speech on the banking industry.
Source: TheStreet
