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Oil Futures Pare Early Gains, Settle Nearly Flat

Crude oil futures settled just marginally up on Thursday, despite moving up sharply early on in the session.

Concerns about supply in the market following the drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities last Saturday pushed crude oil prices in morning trades.

However, prices started climbing down as the session progressed amid reports disruptions to refining activity in Texas due to flooding from Tropical Storm Imelda and a likely drop in demand for crude.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for October ended up by 2 cents at $58.13 a barrel.

On Wednesday, WTI Crude oil futures for October ended down $1.23, or about 2.1%, at $58.11 a barrel, after having plunged 5.7% a session earlier.

On Monday, crude oil prices soared more than $8 a barrel, lifted by worries about supply after the drone attacks on a couple of Saudi oil facilities.

A report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration today said that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 84 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 13.

Data released by the Energy Information Administration Wednesday morning showed crude inventories in the U.S. rose by 1.06 million barrels in the week ended September 13, compared with expectations for a drawdown of 2.5 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories were up by 780,000 barrels last week, against forecasts for a drop of 540,000 barrels. Meanwhile, distillate stockpiles increased by 440,000 barrels, compared with forecasts for a rise of 535,000 barrels.

BlackRock’s bond guru says ‘Fed needs to let the balance sheet grow’

Rick Rieder, global chief investment officer of fixed income at BlackRock, said the Federal Reserve "needs to let the balance sheet grow" to prevent a recurrence of this week’s spike in the overnight repurchasing rate. The so-called repo rate is the amount hedge funds and banks have to pay to borrow funds for a single day. Rieder made his comments at the CNBC Institutional Investor Delivering Alpha conference on Thursday. Investors say a larger portfolio by the central bank would boost bank reserves and alleviate the lack of cash in funding markets. At a Wednesday news conference, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said: "[It’s] certainly possible that we will need to resume the organic growth of the balance sheet earlier than we thought. That’s always been a possibility, and it certainly is now." Rieder said that the "tightness of financing markets is very important, people don’t appreciate that." "The fact that [the surge in repo rates] played out aggressively as it did, it pushed the Fed to act," he said.

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Xilinx stock falls after CFO departure announced

Xilinx Inc. XLNX, -1.24% shares declined in after-hours trading Thursday following the announcement that its chief financial officer is leaving the company. In a news release Thursday afternoon, the chip company said that CFO Lorenzo Flores is leaving the company "to pursue another executive opportunity," and will depart after Xilinx reports fiscal second-quarter earnings on Oct. 23. Flores has been with Xilinx for 11 years. Xilinx said that Chief Executive Victor Peng will assume oversight of finance operations until a new CFO is found, with Sumeet Gagneja acting as chief accounting officer and Matt Poirier taking on the role of treasurer. Xilinx shares declined more than 2% in the extended-trading session after the news was announced.

Microsoft adds GlaxoSmithKline CEO to board, among other changes

Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +1.84% said late Thursday that it had nominated the Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline to the company’s board of directors and that two long-serving board members are resigning. The board nominee, Emma Walmsley, has served as GlaxoSmithKline CEO sine 2017 and has been on the executive team since 2011. Microsoft said Charles Noski and Helmut Panke were resigning. The company’s annual shareholder meeting is Dec. 4, when shareholders will vote on the nominee. Microsoft stock was down 0.2% in the extended session and closed up 1.8% to $141.07 Thursday. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.00% was flat in Thursday trading.

EARNINGS SUMMARY: Details of Scholastic Corp Q1 Earnings Report

Below are the earnings highlights for Scholastic Corp (SCHL):

-Earnings: -$58.4 million in Q1 vs. -$61.3 million in the same period last year.
-EPS: -$1.68 in Q1 vs. -$1.75 in the same period last year.
-Analysts projected -$1.80 per share
-Revenue: $232.6 million in Q1 vs. $218.4 million in the same period last year.

-Guidance:
Full year revenue guidance: $1.67 to $1.70 Bln

Steelcase Q2 profit, sales rise

Steelcase Inc.’s SCS, +2.14% second-quarter net income rose by more than 20% as revenue increased.

Net income was $60.5 million, up 23% from the comparable quarter a year ago. Earnings were 50 cents a share, up from 41 cents a share.

Revenue was $998 million, up 14%. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $980.9 million.

Write to Allison Prang at [email protected]