U.S. and World Stocks Meander, Oil Halts 5-Day Sell-Off

Nichole Harper
09 Dec, 2015
New York City

Stocks on Wall Street meandered and crude oil price halted five-day sell-off of 10%. Dow Chemical and DuPont surged more than 8% after two companies were said to be in advanced merger talks. European markets trimmed losses.

[R]11:20 AM New York City, New York – Stocks on Wall Street meandered and crude oil price halted five-day sell-off of 10%. Dow Chemical and DuPont surged more than 8% after two companies were said to be in advanced merger talks. European markets trimmed losses.[/R]

Stocks on Wall Street opened higher after crude oil prices scaled higher after a five-day sell-off.

Commodities were still in focus and base and precious metal prices steadied ahead of the Fed policy meeting next week, but pessimism mounted in oil pit as traders prepared for the prices to decline below the lows last seen in 2008.

Inventories in October fell 0.1% to $585.9 billion from the revised September data but jumped 3.6% from a year ago.

October wholesale sales unchanged at 0.5% to $448 billion from the revised September sales but declined 3.7% from a year ago month, the Department of Commerce said.

On Wall Street, Tollbooth Strategy Index gained 31.51 or 0.3% to 10,060.90.

S&P 500 index rose 9.99 or 0.5% to 2,073.11 and the Nasdaq Composite Index slid 7.65 or 0.2% to 5,090.59.

Crude oil in New York increased 81 cents to $38.32 a barrel and gold fell $1.92 to $1,073.04 an ounce.

U.S. Movers

Dow Chemical Company ((DOW)) soared 10.3% or $5.29 to $56.14 after the Wall Street Journal reported that the diversified chemical maker and E I Du Pont De Nemours and Co are in preliminary merger talks.

As of Tuesday''s closing, Dow had a market valuation of $58.97 billion, while DuPont had valued of $58.37 billion.

E I Du Pont De Nemours and Co stock surged 9.6% to $73.

Lululemon Athletica Inc ((LULU)) declined 5.2% or $2.66 to $49.52 after the athletic apparel and accessories retailer revenues in the third-quarter ending on November 1 jumped 14% from a year ago to $479.7 million.

Comparable store sales in the quarter soared 6%.

Net income in the quarter plunged 12% to $53.2 million or 38 cents per diluted share compared to $60.5 million or 42 cents per share from the same quarter last year.

Lululemon forecasted net revenue for the fourth-quarter in the range of $670 million to $685 million and diluted earnings per share between 75 cents and 78 cents.

For the year, the company estimated net revenues between $2.03 billion to $2.04 billion and diluted earnings per share in the range of $1.81 to $1.84.

Yahoo! Inc ((YHOO)) rose 17 cents to $35.02 after the internet content services provider said its plans to spin-off its core business into a separate, publicly traded company and abandoning a previous plan to spin-off its valuable stake in Alibaba.

Yahoo received intense pressure from its activist hedge fund manager Starboard Value LP asked the company to drop its plans and sell its core search and display ad businesses.

European Markets

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 16.89 or 0.3% to 6,129.87 and in Frankfurt the DAX index decreased 56.18 or 0.5% to 10,618.68.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slipped 42.35 or 0.9% to 4,639.51.

Ashtead Group Plc soared 8.6% to 1,120 pence after the U.K.-based construction and industrial equipment provider said revenues in the first-half ending in October surged 21% from a year ago to £1.27 billion.

Net profit in the period jumped 32.2% from a year ago to £218.9 million compared to £165.6 million and diluted earnings per share increased to 43.4 pence from 32.8 pence.

The company said during the period total capital expenditure increased 18.4% to £696 million from a year ago period.

Balfour Beatty Plc jumped 2.7% to 269.40 pence after the U.K.-based infrastructure services provider agreed for a new £400 million syndicated revolving credit facility that due to expire in 2016.

For the second-half, the company said it had secured new contracts with improved terms and order book is estimated to remain broadly stable.

Xchanging Plc surged 10.5% to 194.25 pence after the U.K.-based business processing services provider agreed to be acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation for 190 pence per share in cash or about £480 million or $721 million, a premium of about 72% to closing price of 111 pence on October 2.

Asian Markets

Stocks in Tokyo continued to decline and deepening gloom in the commodities market overshadowed the surge in core machinery orders.

Core machine orders, an important indicator of capital spending, soared 10.7% in October to 903.8 billion yen, following an increase of 7.5% in September, the Cabinet Office reported today.

Manufacturing orders surged 14.5% to 376.5 billion yen while government orders tumbled 39.7% to 190.9 billion yen. Overseas orders jumped 41.6% to 1.29 trillion yen.

The M2 money stock in November was up 3.3% to 915.3 trillion yen, the Bank of Japan said.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet Office announced that Japan’s GDP expanded by an annualized 1% in the third quarter, compared with a preliminary estimate of 0.8% drop.

Hakuhodo Dy Holdings said November sales soared 12.5% from a year ago.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped 191.53 or 0.9% to 19,301.07 and the broader Topix index fell 13.15 to 1,555.58.

The yen dropped against the dollar to 122.74.

Stocks in Mumbai declined for the sixth day in a row as investors focused on the passage of goods and services tax reform bill.

Commodities continued to decline for the third day in a row and extended losses in the year. Coal, copper, iron ore and crude oil prices declined in New York and London and Shanghai.

Crude oil dropped for the first time below $37 a barrel in New York trading and touched a new low in seven years and iron ore price dropped 44% in the year so far nearing the loss of 50% in 2014.

Rupee eased 2 paisa to 66.85 against one U.S. dollar.

The Sensex Index slipped 274.28 or 1.1% to close at 25,036.05. The CNX Nifty dropped 89.20 or 1.2% to 7,612.50.

Mahindra & Mahindra said November vehicle sales soared 46.5%. Rajesh Exports extended its order winning streak in UAE.