By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks mostly rose on Thursday in anticipation of results from tech heavyweights Alphabet and Amazon, while the yen eased after Reuters reported the Bank of Japan was considering expanding monetary stimulus to address signs of weak inflation. Expectations of further stimulus in Japan have dominated currency trading in recent weeks and overshadowed the U.S. central bank’s policy-setting statement on Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve indicated it was in no rush to raise interest rates. On Wall Street, stocks initially were dragged lower by Ford Motor Amazon.com shares “Tech has been pretty much the strongest sector over the last month. Momentum players are focusing to buy on pullbacks,” said Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors in San Antonio, Texas. “With Amazon, if it’s a good beat we will be off to the races because it’s already pushing up to 52-week highs.” Equity markets earlier in Europe retreated after Royal Dutch Shell Investors are concerned by a slowdown in growth overseas, which will crimp many American companies even as the U.S. economy expands, as about 40 percent of their revenue is generated abroad, said James Swanson, chief investment strategist at MFS Investment Management in Boston. “These global companies do not have much power to raise prices, but we know labor costs around the world are rising. That’s the squeeze that I’m worried about,” Swanson said. Ford But Facebook The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> closed down 15.82 points, or 0.09 percent, to 18,456.35. The S&P 500 <.SPX> rose 3.48 points, or 0.16 percent, to 2,170.06 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 15.17 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,154.98. In Japan, the Ministry of Finance has been lobbying hard for the BOJ to ease policy further and has prepared a statement it will publish in case the central bank eases, sources told Reuters.
The yen weakened to U.S. session lows of 105.50 on the report. It had gained earlier on Thursday on expectations that the BOJ could disappoint investors.
The dollar index <.DXY>, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, fell 0.37 percent to 96.692. The euro Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes In Europe, investors bought more than 8 billion euros of new debt from Italy, a day before Rome faces a health check of its banks.
The extra yield investors demand to hold Italy’s debt hit its highest since February 2015 this week at 14 basis points.
German 10-year yields held close to Wednesday’s closing levels, showing little impact from the Fed’s decision to keep rates on hold.
Oil prices fell nearly 2 percent, hitting three-month lows, after a fresh stock build at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for U.S. futures added to concerns that producers were pumping more crude than needed. Brent crude (Addition reporting by Nigel Stephenson; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Meredith Mazzilli)