Stock Market News Today, 8/28/23

Stocks are in the green so far in today’s trading. In addition, WTI crude oil is also up today as it hovers above $80 per barrel. Nevertheless, the commodity’s recent bout of weakness has led to prices at the pump slipping across the country.

Indeed, the national average for regular gas was last $3.819 per gallon, down from last week’s reading of $3.865. The highest prices can be found in California, where prices are substantially higher than the national average, at $5.287 per gallon. On the other hand, Mississippi is the state with the lowest gas prices, at $3.291 per gallon.

Last updated: 9:30AM EST

Stocks opened higher to kick off the last trading week of August, with the Nasdaq 100 (NDX), S&P 500 (SPX), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) up by 0.7%, 0.5%, and 0.49%, respectively, at 9:30 a.m., EST, August 28.

First published: 4:54AM EST

U.S. stock futures are trending higher on Monday morning, kicking off August’s last trading week on a positive note. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 (NDX), S&P 500 (SPX), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) were up by 0.28%, 0.19%, and 0.25%, respectively, at 4:54 a.m., EST, August 28.

On Friday, the three major indices ended in the green following Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Powell said that while inflation is down from its peak levels, it still remains too high and signaled that the Fed would raise rates further if “appropriate.”

Meanwhile, this week traders will focus on some key economic releases that would help the Fed in framing its decision about further rate hikes, including August consumer confidence and JOLTS job openings on Tuesday, Q2 GDP growth (second estimate) on Wednesday, initial jobless claims and July’s core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index on Thursday, and August’s nonfarm payrolls and unemployment rate on Friday.

Further, some of the interesting earnings reports lined up this week are Best Buy (BBY), Nio (NIO) PDD Holdings (PDD), HP (HPQ), Salesforce (CRM), CrowdStrike (CRWD), Chewy (CHWY), Okta (OKTA), Dollar General (DG), Lululemon (LULU), Dell (DELL), and Broadcom (AVGO).

Elsewhere, European stocks were up on Monday as markets continued to absorb the commentaries by Powell and other central bankers last week.

Asia-Pacific indices ended higher today. Effective Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Finance slashed the stamp duty on stock trades by half to “invigorate capital markets and boost investor confidence.”

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and China’s Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component indices were up 0.97%, 1.13%, and 1.01%, respectively. While the broader market closed higher, shares of beleaguered real-estate developer Evergrande Group plunged nearly 80% when it resumed trading on Monday following a 17-month suspension. In contrast, electric vehicle maker Xpeng’s shares rallied after the company announced a strategic partnership with Didi, including the purchase of Didi’s smart electric car development business in exchange for shares worth $744 million. Xpeng’s (XPEV) U.S.-listed shares were also trending higher in Monday’s pre-market session.

Meanwhile, like Chinese indices, Japan’s Nikkei and Topix also rose and ended 1.73% and 1.47% higher, respectively, on Monday.

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