Stocks, Inflation Up; Home Prices Down

123jump.com Staff
26 Feb, 2008
New York City

U.S. stocks closed higher after IBM authorized $15 billion stock buyback and talks of Abu Dhabi controlled fund investing in Lennar. Investors also faced difficult news including rising wholesale inflation, falling consumer confidence, and sharp rise in foreclosure in January. Home price index showed a sharp decline in prices in the top 20 metro areas. Prices in eight cities fell in double digits. Macy''''s Target, Nordstrom, and AutoZone rose but Home Depot fell after the release of earnings.

[R]10:00PM Frankfurt, 4:00PM New York, 8:00AM Sydney – U.S. stocks rallied after $15 billion stock buyback from IBM and talks of Abu Dhabi controlled fund investing in home builder Lennar.[/R]

European Markets

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 87.90 or 1.47% to 6,087.40, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 53.81 or 1.09% to close at 4,973.07 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 103.41 or 1.50% to close at 6,985.97. In Zurich trading SMI increased 127.38 or 1.67% to close at 7,743.17.

North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average added 114.70 or 0.91% to a close of 12,684.92, S&P 500 closed up 9.49 or 0.69% to 1,381.29, and Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 17.51 or 0.75% to a close of 2,344.99. In Toronto TSX Composite closed higher 99.56 or 0.73% to close at 13,585.93.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 21 closed higher, 8 closed lower, and one was unchanged.

IBM led the gainers in the Dow Jones Index with a rise of 3.9% followed by increases in Intel of 3.7%, in Hewlett Packard of 2.2%, and in Wal-Mart of 2.1%. Alcoa led the decliners in the index with a fall of 0.9% followed by losses in Merck of 0.85%, in General Electric of 0.8%, and in JP Morgan Chase of 0.7%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500, 359 closed higher, 136 fell, and five were unchanged. Of the index stocks, 46 rose more than 3% and 8 stocks fell more than 3%.

Office Depot led the decliners in the index with a loss of 6% followed by declines in SanDisk of 5.3%, in Eastman Kodak of 4.7%, in Fannie Mae of 4.6%, and in Google Inc of 4.5%. RadioShack led the gainers in the index with a rise of 21% followed by increases in Tenet Healthcare of 14.5%, and in Centex of 9%. Moody’s, Teradyne, and Lennar jumped more than 8%.

South American Markets Indexes

In Latin Markets Peru led the gainers in the region with a rise of 1.8% followed by increases in Argentina of 1.44%, in Mexico of 0.89%, and in Brazil of 0.28%. Chile declined 0.22% and Venezuela fell 0.06%.

Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 89.85 or 0.65% to 13,824.72, in Hong Kong Hang Seng index increased 445.61 or 1.92% closed to 23,714.75. Australia ASX 200 index increased 44.50 or 0.79% to close 5,666.10.

In South Korea Kospi Index increased 00.00 or 0.00% to close at 1,709.13, in Thailand SET index closed lower 4.07 or 0.49% to 834.67 and Indonesia JSE Index edged decreased 12.99 or 0.47% to 2,738.87. Sensex index in India increased 155.62 or 0.88% to 17,806.19.

Bond Yields increased on 10-year U.S. bonds to 3.81% and on 30-year bonds declined to 4.58%.

[R]Commodities, Metals, and Currencies[/R]

Crude oil increased $0.34 to close at $101.22 per barrel for a front month contract, natural gas decreased 4 cents to $9.16 per mBtu, and gasoline futures increased 0.04 cents to close at 255.09 cents per gallon.

Gold increased $5.00 in New York trading to close at $953.90 per ounce, silver closed up 16 cents to $19.005 per ounce, and copper for front month delivery increased 1.35 cents to 380.60 per pound and in London copper futures increased $86.00 to $8,315.00.

Wheat futures rose 46.00 cents in Chicago trading and closed at $12.60 per bushel. Sugar increased 32 cents to 14.54 cents per pound. Soybean future closed down 1.250 cents to $14.83 per bushel.

Dollar edged lower and traded near record lows against euro to $1.4872 and edged lower against yen to 107.18.