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Stocks mixed on Monday, Treasuries mixed, Oil surges after OPEC+ announces output cuts, Permanent change coming to benchmark oil pricing, McDonald’s closes offices briefly ahead of layoffs, Bitcoin and crypto drop, and more financial news.
Stocks were mixed in early trading on Monday, although beginning to move into upward territory, Yahoo Finance reported.
The S&P 500 inched lower by -3.67 points or -0.09%, while the Dow was up 103.27 points or +0.31%, and the NASDAQ was down 54.60 points or -0.45%, as of 9:33 AM EDT.
US Treasuries were mixed on Monday as the benchmark 10-Year Treasury was down -0.011 for a yield of 3.477%, while the 2-Year Treasury was up +0.023 for a yield of 4.085% as of 9:21 AM EDT
Oil futures surged on Monday after oil producers from OPEC+ made a surprise announcement that they would be cutting output, CNN reported.
In oil futures, WTI crude was up +5.58% and trading at $79.81 a barrel, while the benchmark Brent crude was up +5.60% in trading at $84.32 as of 8:23 AM CDT on Monday.
A transformation to the way oil is priced is finally being revised after years of wrangling. The change will allow crude supplies from West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to help determine the pricing for millions of barrels a day of petroleum transactions, Yahoo Finance reports.
The reason for the change is that the existing benchmark – Brent crude – is slowly running out of tradable oil for it to remain reliable. Starting in June and onward, West Texas Intermediate Midland, oil from the Permian will become one of a handful of grades that set the benchmark.
In an internal email last week to US employees and some international staff, McDonald’s corporation told employees to work from home Monday through Wednesday while it closes offices so that it can deliver some staffing decisions, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday. According to the reports, McDonald’s is reviewing corporate staffing levels as it prepares an updated business strategy so it can deliver staffing decisions virtually, the New York Post reported. The notice read: “During the week of April 3, we will communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization.”
Bitcoin dipped -0.50% in early trading on Monday morning, dashing analysts’ hopes that the coin would move towards $30K, although the digital currency remained above $28K, at $28,188.91, Yahoo Finance reported. Ethereum was also carried downward in the wake, also falling -0.50% and landing net of $1808.70. Other digital assets were down as well, including Binance Coin -0.69% at $312.45, Binance USD down -0.09% at $0.99, and Solana was down -1.83% at $20.47, CoinDesk reported.
