Todays trading at US Market was very much like yesterdays and a late hour sell-off once again pushed indices in the red today, Thursday, 15 November, 2007. Nine out of ten economic sectors posted losses today led by the financial sector. Other than this, investors weighed a steady read on consumer inflation and a drop in oil prices against a rise in jobless claims, amid ongoing credit market worries. But at the end, the above-expectation economic reports were overshadowed by the credit concerns in the market.

Market traded in choppy fashion once again for almost the entire day. The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a loss of 120.96 points at 13,110.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished lower by 25.81 points at 2,618.51. S&P; 500 finished lower by 19.43 points at 1,451.15. Twenty-two out of thirty Dow stocks ended in red, led by Citigroup which slipped by 4%.

The financial sector came under pressure today after London Based Barclays disclosed net charges and write-downs of $2.67 billion. But the amount was far less than what was expected.

In the early morning hours, the government reported a 0.3% increase in the consumer-price index in October, with a 1.4% gain in energy prices fueling the rise. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, gained 0.2% in October. The data were in line with economists' expectations. Data showed no sign of significant inflationary pressure.

The other economic report of the morning was new claims for unemployment for the week ended 10 November which rose to 339,000 from 319,000 the week before but remained at levels well below recessionary trends. Economists were expecting a reading of 325,000.

Other than the above, two regional manufacturing surveys were released today, the Empire State Index and the Philadelphia Fed, both topping economists expectations.

Indian ADRs close mixed

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange reached 1.4 billion, as declining stocks overtook those advancing by more than 3 to 1. On the Nasdaq, more than 2.3 billion shares traded, and decliners topped advancers, more than 2 to 1.

Indian ADRs ended mixed today. WNS Holdings and MTNL were the two main winners gaining 6% and 2% respectively. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were the topmost losers losing 4.2% and 4.1% respectively.

Crude oil prices fell today after the weekly inventory report by Energy Department reported that there was an unexpected build up in crude inventories for the week ended 9 November, 2007. Market was expecting a decline. Prices also fell after OPEC reduced its growth forecast for the global demand for oil.

Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for December delivery closed at $93.43/barrel (lower by $0.66/barrel or 0.7%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Price fell to $92/barrel soon after the report was out.

OPEC, today, reduced its fourth-quarter estimate of global oil demand growth to 1.97%, down from 2.1%, citing warmer winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere and the higher price of gasoline. The cartel also trimmed this year's world oil demand growth to 1.4% from 1.5%, but the cartel kept the first quarter of next year unchanged at 1.8%.

Tomorrow, investors will not have much of economic reports to focus on. Earnings reports are expected from a few companies, but none of the biggies.

Powered byCapital Market - Live News