WASHINGTON: U.S. stocks were mostly lower despite a strong performance by energy shares after OPEC members reached an agreement to cut petroleum production.
The S&P 500 Index soared at the market’s open and surpassed it’s record high, but then retreated and was down 0.27 percent to 2,198.81 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also touched a record high before fading and was essentially flat at 19,123.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell more than 1 percent to 5,323.68.
Earlier Tuesday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached an agreement to curtail oil supply by 1.2 million barrels, the first cut in eight years.
“Today, with a significant rally in crude, it’s up about 8 percent or so, leadership is going to come from energy,” said Yousef Abbasi, a global market strategist at JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC. “There is going to be a positive tail wind off of this”
Energy stocks climbed 4.82 percent as a group. Devon Energy Corp. gained 14.63 percent and Marathon Oil Corp. rose 20.8 percent, both hitting 52-week highs
“An agreement on production cuts is positive for oil stocks in the short term, but the upside to oil prices will be limited,” said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, an equity strategist at Deutsche Postbank AG in Bonn, Germany. “U.S. stocks still have further to gain as Trump’s policies seem to be heading in a better direction than people expected before the election.”
