U.S. Stocks in 6-day Decline; Visa, MasterCard Down, Oil Up

Bikram Pandey
08 Jun, 2011
New York City

The U.S. indexes declined for the sixth day in a row as economic worries gain momentum. The latest regional survey from the Fed indicated slow economic recovery across the nation. Crude oil declined after the OPEC left production quota unchanged. Visa and MasterCard fell.

[R]4:05 PM New York – The U.S. indexes declined for the sixth day in a row as economic worries gain momentum. The latest regional survey from the Fed indicated slow economic recovery across the nation. Crude oil declined after the OPEC left production quota unchanged. Visa and MasterCard fell.[/R]

The U.S. indexes traded lower for the sixth day in a row and oil prices rebounded after the OPEC failed to lift production target. Visa and MasterCard declined after the U.S. Senate rejected the plan to delay a fee for debit card charges.

The latest regional survey from the Fed indicated slow and uneven U.S. economic recovery. The survey did not provide any new information that swayed investors in any one direction.

The World Bank forecasted slowdown in growth in developing economies. U.S. consumer credit rose more than estimated in April and mortgage applications declined. Avaya planned to file for $1 billion IPO.

Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc declined as much as 3% after the U.S. Senate rejected a six-month delay of fee cap of debit card charge proposed by the Federal Reserve. The proposal will cap the fee per transaction to 12 cents from the current average fee of 1.14% of purchase price.

Euro area economy expanded 0.8% and Iceland''s economy rebounded 2% in the first quarter. Germany trade surplus fell and French trade deficit widened in April. Greek unemployment surged to 16.2%. Romanian industrial production slackened in April.

The European indexes edged lower after comments from the U.S. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday. AXA Private Equity agreed to acquire $1.7 billion buyout fund assets from Citigroup. Total sold Gassled stake to Silex Gas Norway for NOK 4.64 billion.

The UK indexes fell after reports of rating downgrade. The UK job growth slowed and shop price inflation eased in May. Punch Taverns surged 7.2% after the company said it is on track to meet full-year expectations.

Stocks in Tokyo edged higher as the yen strengthened. Utilities stocks declined on the worries that regulatory oversight may delay restart of 54 nuclear plants after inspection scheduled in spring. Nintendo dropped 6% on heavy volume.

Australian stocks declined for the third day this week and extended losses in the fourth week in a row. The dollar edged lower and commodities prices generally closed down. David Jones and JB Hi-Fi fell to two year lows. Stockland and Westfiled put properties for sale.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

The 10-year bond yield decreased to 2.95% and 30-year bond eased to 4.20%.

The U.S. dollar increased to $1.457 to a euro and rose against the Japanese yen to 79.88 yen.

Immediate delivery futures of Texas crude oil increased $1.90 to $100.99 a barrel and futures of natural gas rose 0.02 cents to $4.85 per mbtu and gasoline price fell 1.29 cents to 297.90 cents a gallon.

In metals trading, copper decreased 4.35 cents to $4.10 per pound, gold fell $6.10 to $1,537.90 per ounce and silver eased $0.40 to $36.65.