After closing down Friday and moving into negative territory early Monday due to developments in Egypt and other factors, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained strength on positive news from Exxon Mobil and moved up about 0.4% in early afternoon trading on Monday to trade near 11,866.
And despite news on Monday that Van Eck Global will exercise its right to suspend creation order on its MarketVectors Egypt Index ETF, the ETF rose 6.7% on Monday by early afternoon to trade at about $17.30. It declined about 14% last week.
Van Eck says the stock exchange in Egypt is closed “for an undetermined period.” And while it has suspended creation order, it will continue to take redemption orders.
Egypt, is experiencing its second week of political protests. On Friday, Fitch Ratings switched its rating on the government’s debt to negative. It had been at BB+. And on Monday, Moody’s dropped its rating on Egyptian bonds a notch and changed its outlook to negative, too; it had been Ba1 and is now Ba2.
Like the MarketVectors Egypt Index ETF, the SPDR S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa ETF, which fell 6% last week, moved up 1.2% on Monday to trade near $69.40.
On Friday, the T. Rowe Price Africa and Middle East Fund weakened 3% Friday to trade near $7.34. It’s down about 4% year to date, as is the Fidelity Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa Fund.
Along with shares in the major oil firms that have been reporting strong earning, like Exxon Mobile, oil prices also moved up Monday. Brent crude oil, the benchmark for oil prices in Europe and Asia, topped $100 for the first time since 2008 over concerts in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark in the U.S., rose about 2.75% to $91.80 a barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The SPDR Select Energy Sector ETF improved 2.50% to trade at 72.90 on Monday. And the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil ETN ticked up 2.8% to $25.43.
No comments:
Post a Comment