Turbulent Week, Gloomy Outlook

123jump.com Staff
18 Jul, 2008
New York City

Tech benchmarks fell after investors sold Google, Microsoft and AMD stocks. Google dropped 8% after earnings and click through rates declined. AMD reported wider than expected loss. Citigroup rose it reported a loss of $2.5 billion, smaller than estimated and wrote down $12 billion in assets. Merrill Lynch traded weak on higher than expected loss. European markets edged higher on interest in financial stocks.

4:30PM New York, 10:30PM Frankfurt, 6:30AM Sydney[R]– Tech stocks dropped as investors sold Google, Microsoft and AMD after the earnings. European stocks rebounded. Asian markets closed higher.[/R]

North American Markets indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 49.91 or 0.44% to a close of 11,496.57, S&P 500 closed up 0.36 or 0.03% to 1,260.68, and Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 29.52 or 1.28% to close at 2,282.78. In Toronto TSX Composite closed up 55.71 or 0.41% to 13,515.96.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average 19 stocks gained and 10 declined.

Microsoft Corp led the decliners in the Dow Jones Index with a fall of 6.03% followed by decreases in JP Morgan Chase of 1.9%, in Caterpillar of 1.3%, in Walt Disney of 0.9%, in United Technologies Corp of 0.9% and in 3M of 0.7%.

Citigroup led the gainers in the Dow Jones Index with a rise of 7.7% followed by increases in Bank of America of 3.7%, in IBM of 2.7%, in General Motors of 2.6% and in Merck & Company of 1.95%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 254 increased, 236 declined and 10 were unchanged. Of the index stocks 42 stocks rose more than 3% and 25 fell more than 3%.

Advanced Micro led the decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 12.2% followed by declines in Huntington Banc of 11.90%, in Supervalu Inc of 10.6%, in Gilead Sciences of 10.6%, in Google Inc of 9.77%, in Zions Bancorp of 7.9% and in Tesoro of 6.5%

Fannie Mae led the gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 22% followed by gains in WaMu of 18.64%, in Mattel Inc of 13.02%, in Barr Pharmaceuticals of 10.95%, in Freddie Mac of 10.2% and in Citigroup of 7.7%.

South American Markets Indexes

Peru led the decliners in the Latin American markets with a fall of 2.00% followed by decreases in Brazil of 0.2% and in Argentina of 0.16%.

Chile led the gainers in the region with a rise of 1.6% followed by gains in Argentina of 0.7%, in Venezuela of 0.36% and in Colombia of 0.5%.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 90.10 or 1.70% to 5,376.40, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 73.37 or 1.74% to close at 4,299.36 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 111.38 or 1.78% to close at 6,382.65. In Zurich trading SMI increased 88.15 or 1.31% to close at 6,827.31.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 84.25 or 0.65% to 12,803.70, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 139.47 or 0.64% closed to 21,874.19. ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 60.60 or 1.24% to close 4,840.40. The KL Composite index in Malaysia decreased 16.13 or 1.44% closed to 1,105.04.

The Kospi Index in South Korea decreased 15.57 or 1.02% to close at 1,509.99, SET index in Thailand closed lower 5.45 or 0.81% to 664.52 and JSE Index in Indonesia decreased 26.58 or 1.23% to 2,141.14. The Sensex index in India increased 523.55 or 3.99% to 13,635.40.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil decreased $0.54 to close at $128.75 a barrel for a front month contract, natural gas closed up 14 cents to $10.68 per mBtu and gasoline futures increased 0.02 cents to close at 316.35 cents per gallon.

Gold decreased $12.70 in New York trading to close at $958.00 per ounce, silver closed down 53 cents to $18.20 per ounce and copper for front month delivery decreased 4.60 cent to $3.66 per pound.

Wheat futures decreased 5.50 cent in Chicago trading and closed at $8.04 per bushel. Sugar decreased 22 cent to $12.49 per pound. Soybean future closed down 50.00 cents to $14.48 a bushel.

Dollar edged lower and traded near record low against euro to $1.5846 and fell against yen to 106.95.

Yields on U.S. bonds increased to 4.09% with 10 years of maturities and increased to 4.66% with 30-year of maturities.