Source: Securities Times

On Wednesday (December 6), the three major US stock indexes opened higher and lower and collectively closed down. Crude oil futures plummeted, US energy stocks fell sharply, and aviation stocks bucked the trend and rose. By the close, the Dow was down 0.19%, the S&P 500 was down 0.39%, and the Nasdaq was down 0.58%.

Crude oil futures plummeted

International oil prices have fallen sharply. The US oil contract for January next year fell 4.25% to 69.25 US dollars/barrel. The oil distribution contract for February next year fell 3.78% to 74.24 US dollars/barrel. Both US Oil and Petroleum posted the biggest closing losses since November 16.

Crude oil futures plummeted to “crash” US energy stocks. By the close, Sunco Energy had fallen by more than 5%, ConocoPhillips by more than 2%, Shell, Brasil, Occidental Petroleum, ExxonMobil, and British Petroleum had fallen by more than 1%, and Chevron had declined slightly.

Aviation stocks, on the other hand, rose collectively. Boeing is up 1.18%, American Airlines is up 2.67%, Delta Air Lines is up 3.55%, Southwest Airlines is up 2.98%, and United Airlines is up 3.38%.

According to the news, the decline in international oil prices stemmed from an increase in US gasoline inventories that exceeded expectations, employment data fell short of expectations, and there were differences within OPEC+ member countries about continuing to cut production next year.

According to data released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in the week ending December 1, US gasoline inventories exceeded expectations and increased by 5.42 million barrels, far higher than market expectations of 1.027 million barrels.

The US employment data processing company ADP announced on Wednesday that new jobs in the private sector slowed further in November, and the wage increase was the lowest in more than two years.

The ADP employment agency reported on Wednesday that the US private sector only added 103,000 employees in November. This is lower than the revised October data (106,000), and lower than the 128,000 people generally predicted by economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

The increase in employment fell short of economists' expectations, which is a sign that the labor market is cooling down.

Another sign that the US labor market is loosening appeared on Tuesday (December 5). The US Department of Labor reports that the number of job vacancies in October fell to 8.73 million, the lowest level since March 2021.

In order to stabilize oil prices, last week, several OPEC+ member states announced that they will continue to voluntarily cut production in the first quarter of next year, with a total reduction of 2.2 million barrels per day. However, the analysis points out that OPEC+ announced “voluntary production cuts” rather than “collective production cuts,” reflecting internal differences, and investors have doubts about their determination to cut production.

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