Consumer stocks advanced Thursday afternoon, with the State Street Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP) increasing 0.3% and the State Street Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY) up 0.4%.
In corporate news, Costco (COST) shares rose 1.7% after the company reported net sales of $24.01 billion in May, up from $20.97 billion a year earlier.
Tech stocks were lower Thursday afternoon, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) falling 1.6% and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) down 0.7%.The Philadelphia Semiconductor index dropped 2.1%.In corporate news, Broadcom (AVGO) shares fell past 13% after it reported fiscal Q2 results late Wednesday. The company's fiscal Q3 AI revenue outlook likely fell short of investor expectations, while Q2 results were slightly ahead of consensus, RBC said in a note.
US natural gas stocks rose by 95 billion cubic feet in the week ended May 29, smaller than the 99 billion gain expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:30 am ET and following an increase of 92 billion cubic feet in the previous week.Stocks at 2.578 trillion cubic feet are 0.1% lower than in the comparable week a year ago but 5.7% above their 5-year average.
Natural gas traded at a four-month high early Thursday ahead of fresh storage data as forecasts see hot weather on the way, boosting cooling demand.Gas for July delivery was last seen up $0.10 to US$3.31 per million British thermal units, the highest since Feb.6.The rise comes as long-term forecasts from the National Weather Service expect all states to see hotter than seasonal weather over its eight to 14 day outlook."Natural gas markets are finding renewed strength in weather outlooks that have above normal temperatures for most of the contiguous 48 extending over the next several weeks. Those temperatures are expected to add to power sector gas demands and firm up the fundamentals for the remainder of summer. The first test could come tomorrow and into the weekend where the northeast will see the mercury climb through 90 again," Gary Cunningham, Director Market Research at Tradition Energy, wrote.The Energy Information Administration will release its weekly survey of inventories of the fuel later on Thursday morning, with Celsius Energy expecting the agency to report stocks rose by 102-billion cubic feet, near the five-year average for the week.