US Stocks Close Out Massive Week With Quiet Gains

New York (July 2)  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.

Source: TheStreet