The energy sectors-driven index, S&P 500, gave up early gains and closed in the bearish territory on Wednesday session as lower oil prices weighed in on impressive first quarter earnings of Morgan Stanley.
Struggling Commodity
The S&P 500 posted its second straight loss this week after it gave up 0.2%, to close at 2 338.17 on Wednesday trading, as oil commodity continued to struggle against the booming crude production in US.
Oil prices were still in the red yesterday as West Texas Intermediate crude futures shed 3.8% and settled at 450.44 per barrel while international benchmark, Brent crude futures, dropped $1.96, or 3.6%, and finished at $52.93 per barrel.
These declines in both benchmarks dragged different sectors in the S&P 500 and sent them in the negative zone, with energy sectors consider as the worst performing in the index for 2017 due to continuous drop in oil prices, down 1.7% in the first three months of the year.
Meanwhile, the only bright spot for the benchmark was Morgan Stanley’s impressive first quarter earnings, with the New York-based firm recording a jump to $1.93 billion or $1 per share on January to March period from $1.13 billion or 55 cents per share in the same quarter of the previous year.
The company’s revenue tallied $9.75 billion, up from $7.79 billion, but was not good enough to lift the index in the bullish zone.