Wall St ends choppy session lower, weighed by China, oil

US stocks fell in a choppy session Tuesday as lower oil prices pressured energy stocks for a fifth day and weak Chinese trade data reignited fears of a global slowdown. All three major indexes were moving higher within a tight range a few minutes after the opening bell. S&P 500 historical prices show the index advanced 0.23% to 2,052.23 with 6 out of 10 its sectors being in the black.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,483 to 611, for a 4.06-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,186 issues fell and 654 advanced for a 3.34-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

Economic data showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose to a five-month high of 282,000 last week, but likely did not signal a deterioration in the labour market as the underlying trend remained consistent with tightening conditions.

Shares of a bunch of mainland-listed companies with ties to Fosun, including Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group and Shanghai Guanglian E-commerce Holdings were suspended from trading on Friday, pending announcement containing “inside information”. The losses were broad, with seven of the 10 industry sectors in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closing lower. The index has lost more than 9 percent since the beginning of the month.

Meanwhile, import prices fell 0.4 percent in November, as oil prices weighed, the Labor Department said.

U.S. stocks rose in early trade Thursday as Wall Street tried to shrug off three straight declines prompted by plunging prices of oil and other commodities.

“Obviously it’s about oil below $40, Brent at a new year-low”. That outlook was materially different to higher expectations previously communicated and the company say they informed the market in a timely fashion as soon as the re-forecasting was complete.

“The API inventory stats coming out after the close [last night] were modestly helpful, showing a draw of 1.6m barrels and crude is up about 50 cents this morning”.

Asian markets dropped as Japan’s Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.3% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.5%.

Despite oil’s fall, pipeline company TransCanada Corp. Around 9:00am AEDT it was worth 72.4 United States cents, 87.9 Japanese yen, 47.6 British pence, 65.6 euro cents and $1.08 in New Zealand.

Futures have been under pressure since last Friday, when the 12-member oil cartel OPEC raised its production target to 31.5 million barrels per day, and did not agree on a ceiling for member states.

“Also, if the yuan continues to depreciate, that’s negative to stocks as well, because it means investors are not confident about China’s economic restructuring”.