The twenty-third full trading week of 2015 comes to a close with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 down and the NASDAQ composite lower on the day, in late afternoon trading.
Most actively traded stocks include Twitter (TWTR) down 0.36%, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) lower by 0.17% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) down 0.87%.
The S&P 500 and Dow are higher in the last five days of trading, while the NASDAQ is slightly lower over the period.
Crude oil futures are higher this week, trading at $60.10 per barrel on Friday afternoon.
And Gold futures are also higher this week, trading at $1180.20 an ounce this afternoon.
In economic news, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that April 2015 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations and trading-day differences but not for price changes, were $448.3 billion, up 1.6
percent from the revised March level, but were down 3.3 percent from the April 2014 level. Total inventories of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, after adjustment for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were $576.9 billion at the end of April, up 0.4 percent from the revised March level and were up 4.5 percent from the April 2014 level.
In the week ending June 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 279,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 276,000 to 277,000. The 4-week moving average was 278,750, an increase of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 274,750 to 275,000.
The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.5 percent in May, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Final demand prices fell 0.4 percent in April and
advanced 0.2 percent in March. On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index declined 1.1
percent for the 12 months ended in May, the fourth straight 12-month decrease.
In May, the increase in the final demand index can be traced to prices for final demand goods, which rose 1.3 percent. The index for final demand services was unchanged.
Within intermediate demand, prices for processed goods climbed 1.0 percent, the index for
unprocessed goods jumped 3.3 percent, and prices for services fell 0.5 percent.
In corporate dividend news, Abbott (NYSE:ABT) declared a quarterly common dividend of 24 cents per share. The cash dividend is payable Aug. 15, 2015, to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 15, 2015.
Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1.00 per common share, payable on July 10, 2015, to shareholders of record as of June 25, 2015. The ex-dividend date is June 23, 2015.
United Technologies Corp.'s (NYSE:UTX) declared, effective July 6, a dividend of 64 cents per common share payable Sept. 10 to shareowners of record at the close of business Aug. 14. The ex-dividend date is Aug. 12.
The TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) announced the declaration of a quarterly dividend on its common stock of $.21 per share payable September 3, 2015, to shareholders of record on August 13, 2015.
Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) voted to increase the quarterly cash dividend by 10 percent to seventy-seven cents ($0.77) per share of common stock, payable August 20, 2015, to stockholders of record at the close of business on July 20, 2015.
Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) has declared a quarterly dividend of 56 cents per common share, a 7.7 percent increase from the prior quarterly dividend of 52 cents. The dividend is payable Sept. 10, 2015, to shareholders of record at the close of business Aug. 19, 2015.
Microsoft announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.31 per share. The dividend is payable September 10, 2015 to shareholders of record on August 20, 2015. The ex-dividend date will be August 18, 2015.
MasterCard declared a cash dividend of $0.16 per share, payable on August 10, 2015, to holders of record of its Class A common stock and Class B common stock as of July 9, 2015.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share on FedEx Corporation common stock. The dividend is payable July 2, 2015 to stockholders of record at the close of business on June 18, 2015.
This is the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday June 12, 2015.
Please join us on Monday for the Week Ahead Market Report.
For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase.