Modest gains at Wall Street
stocks at Wall Street managed a steady end with some modest gains on Tuesday, 27 January, 2009. Though stocks dealt with a couple of worse thane expected earning reports since morning, the indices have managed to stay in the green for the entire session. Crude prices dropped drastically today.
After being up by more than 80 points earlier during the day, The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 58 points at 8,174, the Nasdaq closed higher by 15 points at 1,504 and the S&P 500 closed higher by 9 points at 845.
While the financial and technology sectors led today, consumer discretionary and telecom sectors were the laggards for the day.
In the earning arena today, Dow component Verizon met expectations. Market is looking forward to AT&T's quarterly report tomorrow. American Express reported better than feared earnings and the company reported that write-offs are expected to increase in the coming quarters. Dow component DuPont posted a worse-than-expected loss for the latest quarter, and lowered its outlook.
In the tech sector, Texas Instruments reported a drop in earnings, reduced its outlook, and announced plans to layoff 12% of its workforce.
Among major economic reports for the day, the monthly Conference Board index reported today that consumer confidence hit a record low in January as worries worsened about future income. As per the report, the January consumer confidence index fell to 37.7 from an upwardly revised 38.6 in December. Market had expected a January reading of 38.
In a separate report, Standard & Poor's reported today that home values in 20 major U.S. cities fell a record 18.2% in the 12 months ending in November, 2008. The Case-Shiller 20-city home price index fell 2.2% in November, with home values in all 20 cities falling at least 1%. Prices in the original 10-city index fell a record 19.1% over the year.
Global economic concerns pushed crude prices lower once again on Tuesday, 27 January, 2009. Prices also went lower after traders anticipated that tomorrow's weekly inventory report will once again show buildup in crude inventories for fifth straight week.
On Tuesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for March delivery closed at $41.58/barrel (lower by $4.15 or 9.1%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Last week, crude prices ended higher by 9%. Prices had reached a high of $49 earlier during the day today.
The earning reports for tomorrow will feature quite a few big names like AT&T, Boeing and Wells Fargo. Other than that, the Federal Open Market Committee makes will disclose its latest policy statement tomorrow afternoon. With the fed funds target rate currently ranging from 0.00% to 0.25%, market will be looking for clues regarding the committee's methods for steering the economy without using rate cuts.
Comments