Investing.com - Shares of soccer club Manchester United rallied to all-time high territory midday, while energy stocks were broadly lower on trade concerns.
Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) stock jumped about 6% at 11:25 AM ET (15:25 GMT) and hit an intraday high of $27.70.
While the team is already struggling three games into the Premier League, with just one win, the performance of the stock has been stellar of late, pushing the enterprise value of the club up around $4.8 billion, which would match it as the world’s most valuable sports franchise with the Dallas Cowboys, according to Forbes.
It’s hard to pinpoint one reason why the stock is spiking today, but shares have been rallying strongly since the beginning of the month.
This could be investors (not supporters) applauding the decision by the team’s hierarchy to rein in summer spending on player transfers, much to the chagrin on manager Jose Mourinho.
Meanwhile, energy stocks were slightly lower across the board, pushing the S&P Energy Sector index down about 0.9%.
Crude oil fell in midday trading as worries about the impact of global trade wars overshadowed concerns about an expected drop in Iranian supply.
Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHGE), off about 2.5%, Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC), down about 1.5% and Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), which fell about 1.4%, were among the biggest losers in the index.
On the trade front, investors contended with President Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw from the World Trade Organization and his reported desire to impose tariffs on $200 billion more in Chinese goods as early as next week.
In addition, the U.S.-imposed Friday deadline for Canada to join the U.S. and Mexico in a reimagining of NAFTA was approaching.