US stocks ended substantially lower today, Wednesday, 21 November, 2007ahead of tomorrows Thanksgiving Holiday. Stocks slumped as financials continued to be under pressure. Though stocks tried to stage a recovery in the second half, they failed as indices slipped into red once again and Dow ended the day with a triple digit loss.
Dollar at a new low against its rival currencies and crude nearing the $100/barrel mark continued to worry investors. All ten economic sectors finished in the day in negative territory headed by the Financial sector.
The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a loss of 211 points at 12,799. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished lower by 34 points at 2,562. S&P; 500 finished lower by 22.9 points at 1,416.
Twenty-nine out of thirty Dow stocks ended in red. AIG, American Express, Merck and JP Morgan headed the team of Dow laggards. General Motors was the sole Dow winner today.
In the financial sector, AIG came under pressure since morning today after Lehman Brothers said investors should brace for more write-downs from the company. On the other hand, in the bond market, the yield on the 10-year note dropped below 4% for the first time since 2005, before finishing the day at 4.01%.
On the economic front there were a few reports. But none of them garnered major attention. New claims for unemployment for the week ended 16 November fell to 330,000 from 341,000 the week before. The November University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was revised to 76.1 from 75.0. the other report, October Leading Indicators, fell to -0.5%, compared to last month's reading of 0.3%. Economists expected the reading to come in at -0.3%.
WNS (Holdings) remain the sole Indian ADR winner
Barring WNS Holdings, all Indian ADRs ended in the red today. VSNL and ICICI Bank were the two topmost losers slipping 8.9% and 7.1% respectively. They were followed by Satyam, MTNL and HDFC Bank who lost 6% each.
Crude oil prices rose today earlier in the day but then gave up its gains and closed lower for the day. Prices earlier rose but then fell after Energy Department released the weekly inventory report. Price fluctuated after analyzing the inventory data. Earlier in the day, in electronic trading, it crossed $99/barrel but then fell.
Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $97.29/barrel (lower by $0.74/barrel or 0.75%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 62% from a year ago.
As per the weekly report by the Energy Dept, U.S. crude stockpiles dropped by 1.1 million barrels in the week ending 16 November as against an expected build-up. Crude oil for January delivery rose 55 cents to $98.60 a barrel after the report. But then price fell after traders realized that crude at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for crude traded on the Nymex, rose 1.2 million barrels to 14.6 million in the latest week.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to 1.7 billion, and declining stocks topped those advancing about 5 to 1. On the Nasdaq, nearly 2.2 billion shares were traded, and declining stocks outpaced advancers about 4 to 1.
The U.S. markets are closed tomorrow in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Trading will resume Friday, 23 November.
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