Rally in Techs, Financials Lifts U.S. Stocks

123jump.com Staff
01 May, 2008
New York City

Stocks in financials and technology sector closed sharply higher at close on a rally in the late afternoon. Tech heavy Nasdaq closed up 2.8%, Dow Jones Industrial rose 1.5% and S&P 500 increased 1.7%. Most markets in Asia, Latin America and Europe were closed for trading today. Exxon Mobil led decliners in Dow and American Express led gainers. Of the stocks in S&P 500, 430 closed higher and 70 closed lower, with MBIA leading gainers and JDS Uniphase leading decliners.

[R]10:00PM Frankfurt, 4:00PM New York, 8:00AM Sydney – Financials, technology and home builders led the rally in U.S. stocks as most of the world markets were closed for trading. Oil and gold fell.[/R]

Global Markets Update

U.S. stocks closed higher in the morning trading after the release of weekly jobless claims and personal income and expenditure data. Weekly jobless claims increased 35,000 at the end of last week and personal income in March rose 0.3% and personal consumption expenditure rose 0.4%. Exxon Mobil earnings fell short of expectations and stock fell 4%. UBS raised its price target for MasterCard to $350 from $275 and for Visa to $100 from $88.

Financials, technology stocks, home builders and credit card lenders and processors rose in the session. Energy, miners and commodities companies fell.

General Motors and Ford report sales decline but Toyota and Nissan sales rise. As consumer watch the rising fuel cost, more people chose to buy smaller vehicles and forego purchase of light trucks. There were also two fewer selling days in April this year compared to April 2007. GM unit sales declined 17% and sales at Ford fell 12%. Toyota unit sales rose 3.5% and at Nissan sales surged 6.7%.

The Bank of England in its report on financial stability said that the current re-pricing in the credit markets is taking longer than anticipated. But, added that prices of securities are likely to rebound from the current low in levels in months ahead. FTSE 100 index close unchanged on a weakness in energy and mining and metals related stocks. Smith & Nephew led decliners in the FTSE 100 shares with a drop of 13% followed by losses in Eurasian Natural of 3%, in Home Retail Group of 2.8%.

European Markets indexes

In London FTSE 100 Index closed unchanged to 6,087.30. Market in Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich were closed today.

North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 189.87 or 1.48% to a close of 13,010.00, S&P 500 closed up 23.75 or 1.71% to 1,409.34, and Nasdaq Composite Index increased 67.91 or 2.81% to close at 2,480.71. In Toronto TSX Composite closed up 128.77 or 0.92% to 14,065.81.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average, 26 closed higher, 4 closed lower, and none was unchanged.

Exxon Mobil led decliners in the Dow Jones index with a fall of 3.9% followed by losses in Chevron Corp of 1.1%, in Alcoa of 0.3% and in Procter & Gamble of 0.09%. American Express led gainers in the Dow Jones with a rise of 7.1% followed increases in Bank of America of 4.6%, in Intel of 4.6%, in AIG of 3.9% and in Home Depot of 3.6%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 430 stocks increased, 70 declined, and none were unchanged. Of the stocks in the index, 15 stocks fell more than 3% and 179 gained more than 3%.

MBIA led gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 13% followed by increases in Symantec of 12%, in Office Depot of 11%, in CenturyTel of 10.7%, in CIT Group of 10%, and in Clorox of 9.9%.

JDS Uniphase led decliners in the S&P 500 index with a fall of 16% followed by losses in International flavor & Fragrance of 7.6%, in Murphy Oil of 7%, Apache Corp of 6.1%, and in Freeport McMoran of 5.1%.

South American Markets Indexes

Markets in South America were closed today.

But yesterday, Brazil closed at a record high and led gainers in the South American trading with a rise of 6.34% followed by increases in Colombia of 1.61%, in Argentina of 1.2%, and in Chile of 0.98%. Mexico added 0.04% and Venezuela rose 0.9%.
Peru, the only decliner fell 0.1%.

Bovespa surged 4,042.70 or 6.4% after S&P increased Brazil rating to investment grade. Of the 63 member stocks in the Bovespa index, 62 gained and 1 fell. CCR led the gainers in the index with a surge of 4.4% followed by a rise of more than 13% in Lojas Renner, Cyrela, and Gafisa. Nine stocks in the index gained more than 10%.

Banks surged ahead on the expectations of steady rise in consumer spending. Unibanco rose 12%, Banco Itau added 9.3% and in Bradesco jumped 8.3%.

Vale, the largest iron ore mining company surged 5% to 65.53 real and Vivo, the largest mobile telecom operator added 6.3% to 11.80 real.

Asian Markets

In Tokyo Nikkei 225 Index closed lower 83.13 or 0.60% to 13,766.86, in Australia ASX 200 index lower 9.60 or 0.17% to close 5,585.80. Markets in Hong Kong and Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and India were closed today.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil decreased $1.14 to close at $112.32 a barrel for a front month contract, natural gas decreased 29 cents to $10.89 per mBtu, and gasoline futures decreased 3.60 cents to close at 287.00 cents per gallon.

Gold decreased $14.20 in New York trading to close at $850.90 per ounce, silver closed down $0.38 cents to $16.205 per ounce, and copper for front month delivery decreased 21.00 cents to $3.6945 per pound.

Wheat futures decreased 11.00 cents in Chicago trading and closed at $7.90 per bushel. Sugar decreased 46 cent to $11.35 per pound. Soybean future closed down 43.00 cents to $12.71 a bushel.

Dollar edged higher but traded near record low against euro to $1.5466 and edged higher against yen to 104.375.

Yields on U.S. bonds increased to 3.77% with 10 years of maturities and increased 4.50% with 30-year of maturities.