Stocks on Wall Street Search Direction on Mixed Economic Data, Oil Down 1%

Nichole Harper
01 Oct, 2015
New York City

Market indexes on Wall Street lacked direction and oil prices declined nearly 1%. Chipmakers were on the defensive on an industrywide speculation that Apple Inc may cut chip orders for the fourth quarter.

[R]2:35 PM New York City, New York – Market indexes on Wall Street lacked direction and oil prices declined nearly 1%. Chipmakers were on the defensive on an industrywide speculation that Apple Inc may cut chip orders for the fourth quarter.[/R]

Market indexes on Wall Street struggled and automaker reported rising sales as consumers take advantage of low interest rates and falling fuel prices.

Seasonally adjusted weekly jobless claims jumped 10,000 to 277,000 from the unrevised claims of 267,000 in the previous week, the Department of Labor said today.

Construction spending in August increased 0.7% at annual rate of $1,086.2 billion from the revised July estimate of $1,079.1 billion and soared 13.7% from a year ago spending of $955 billion, the Department of Commerce reported.

On Wall Street, Tollbooth Strategy Index slipped 75.29 or 0.7% to 10,050.94.

S&P 500 index fell 14.11 or 0.7% to 1,906.03 and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 43.12 or 0.9% to 4,577.15.

Crude oil in New York edged down 0.07 cents to $45.02 a barrel and gold edged up 0.36 to $1,115.45 an ounce.

U.S. Movers

Ford Motor Company ((F)) slid 1 cent to $13.56 after the auto maker said total U.S. sales in September jumped 23% to 221,599 vehicles and retail sales also soared 23% to 168,522 vehicles.

F-Series truck sales in the month advanced 16% to 69,651 and Ford brand SUVs achieved the best September results in 12 years and surged 27%. Mustang sales increased 199% and Lincoln sales totaled 8,680 vehicles and increased 20%, the best in last eight years.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV ((FCAU)) slid 2 cents to $13.19 after the passenger cars maker said total U.S. vehicle sales in September surged 14% to 193,019 units from a year ago month and the September sales since 2000.

Total car sales in the month were flat at 39,328 units while truck sales soared 18% to 153,691 units from a year ago period. Jeep Brand sales jumped 40% to 77,201 units and Ram Truck brand sales increased 4% to 39,946 units.

Chrysler brand sales declined 5% to 27,250 units and Dodge brand sales rose 3% to 45,170 units.

General Motors Company ((GM)) gained 1.2% or 37 cents to $30.39 after the automaker said total vehicles sales in September soared 12.5% to 251,310 units from a year ago month and sales for the year jumped 4.2% to 2,299,847 units.

GM retail sales in the month surged 17.3% to 203,895 units.

GM’s average transaction prices increased almost $800 per unit compared to August and almost $3,200 from a year ago month while incentives declined $400 per unit from last month and $800 from a year ago month.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd, the car maker reported total U.S. sales in September jumped 18.3% to 121,782 units from 102,955 units in the same month a year ago.

Total car sales in the month soared 13.8% to 68,926 units while total truck sales surged 24.7% to 52,856 units from a year earlier.

JPMorgan Chase & Co ((JPM)) rose 11 cents to $61.08 after the Bloomberg News reported financial services provider plans to bid for about £12 billion or $18 billion of mortgages sold by the U.K. government.

European Markets

In London trading, FTSE 100 index gained 25.80 or 0.4% to 6,086.35 and in Frankfurt the DAX index fell 91.93 or 0.9% to 9,570.86.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slid 6.65 or 0.2% to 4,449.36.

Altice NV declined 7.2% to €17.36 after the Netherlands-based cable and phone services provider launched a 10% capital raising for about €1.8 billion or $2 billion worth of new equity capital issuing up to 69,997,600 of its A shares and up to 24,832,500 of its B shares.

Net proceeds of the issue will be used to finance the acquisition of Cablevision Systems Corp.

The company also raised $8.6 billion of new debt to finance the purchase of Cablevision in a $17.7 billion deal to create the fourth-largest cable operator in the U.S.

The Cablevision related debt was financed at 7.6% average interest rate with the average debt tenure of 7.9 years.

Total company debt is $14.5 billion with the average maturity of 6.7 years and average interest rate of 7.5%.

Repsol SA jumped 4.3% to €10.86 after the Spain-based energy producer said it divested part of its piped gas business to Gas Natural Distribution and Redexis Gas for about €651.5 million or $728 million.

The transaction is expected to close in first-quarter of 2016.

Asian Markets

Nikkei average in Tokyo soared on the first day of the last quarter after falling the most in the previous quarter in five years.

Tankan survey, released by the Bank of Japan showed mixed economic picture with the struggling manufacturing sector but growing service sector.

The Bank of Japan Tankan survey showed the business confidence index declined among Japanese companies for the first time in the year but service sector showed an improvement.

The leading indicator for the next month also showed that the data for manufacturing could worsen in the next month.

In addition, China reported its manufacturing sector gauge, the purchasing managers index in September rose only a tenth of a percentage point to 49.8. Any reading below 50 shows a decline in growth rate.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average jumped 334.27 or 1.9% to 17,722.42 and the broader Topix index soared 31.58 or 2.2% to 1,442.74.

The yen strengthened to 120.19 against a dollar.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc soared 3.2% to 230.10 yen after the financial services provider and Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. signed an agreement to set up a new company to integrate their asset management operations with 54 trillion yen in assets under management.

Fujifilm Holdings Corporation rose 0.3% to 4,471 yen after the films, cameras and optical devices maker plans to buy back up to 30 million shares for as much as 100 billion yen through March 2016.

Separately, the company’s U.S.-based subsidiary agreed to acquire a solvent manufacturer maker Ultra Pure Solutions, Inc, without disclosing of financial terms.

Market indexes in Mumbai traded higher as vehicle makers report better than expected sales in September.

Rupee strengthen 7 paisa to 65.51 against one U.S. dollar.

The Sensex Index increased 66.12 or 0.3% to close at 26,220.95. The CNX Nifty added 2 to 7,950.90. Markets are scheduled to close tomorrow to celebrate Gandhi Jayanti.

For the week, Sensex Index advanced 1.5% and CNX Nifty gained 1.3%.

Ashok Leyland total auto sales soared 26% and Hero MotoCorp total sales rose 0.7%. Maruti Suzuki India sales increased 4%. Eicher Motors sales surged 28% but Mahindra & Mahindra passenger vehicle sales slipped 7%.