Wamu Plunges 30%; Gold Drops 4%

123jump.com Staff
10 Sep, 2008
New York City

U.S. stocks closed higher after trading sideways for the most of the session. Crude oil and natural gas closed lower as Hurricane Ike eneters the Gulf of Mexico and heads in the direction of oil installation. Separately, financial stocks came under selling pressure after Wamu Inc plunged 29% as the company ended talks with several investors for capital infusion. Carlos Slim acquires 6.4% stake in New York Times after the stock trades near eleven years low. Gold plunges 4%.

5:00PM New York, 11:00PM Frankfurt, 7:00AM Sydney[R]– U.S. stocks traded sideways but managed to close higher. Brazil surged in Latin American trading after dropping for more than three sessions in a row. Hong Kong and India lead decliners in Asia.[/R]

North American Markets

Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 38.19 or 0.34% to a close of 11,268.92, S&P 500 Index closed up 7.53 or 0.61% to 1,232.04, and Nasdaq Composite Index increased 18.89 or 0.85% to close at 2,228.70. In Toronto TSX Composite closed up 350.39 or 2.88% to 12,497.15.

Of the 30 stocks in Dow Jones Industrial Average 13 stocks gained, 17 declined and none was unchanged.

General Motors led gainers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average with a rise of 6.1% followed by increases in Chevron Corp of 3.01%, Exxon Mobil 2.7%, IBM of 2.6% and Caterpillar Inc of 2.35%.

AIG led decliners in Dow Jones Industrial Average with a fall of 4.75% followed by losses in Boeing Company of 3.6%, in AT&T Inc of 3.07%, in Merck & Company of 2.4%, in Verizon Communication of 1.45% and in United Technologies of 1.2%.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 305 increased, 189 declined and 6 were unchanged. Of the index stocks, 71 rose more than 3% and 31 fell more than 3%.

Micron Tech led the gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 11.34% followed by gains in Range Resources of 9.28%, in Consol Energy of 8.94%, in Peabody Energy 8.70%, in Massey Energy of 8.23% and in Southwestern Energy of 7.57%.

Wamu Inc led decliners in the S&P 500 index with a plunge of 29.70% followed by losses in Fannie Mae of 25.25%, in Freddie Mac of 25.00%, in MGIC Investment Corp of 12.10%, in Wachovia Corp of 7.14%, in Lehman Brothers of 6.93% and in Fifth Third Bancorp of 6.8%.

South American Markets Indexes

Brazil led gainers in the region with a rise of 2.47% followed by increases in Chile of 0.85%, in Argentina of 0.61% and in Colombia of 0.41%.

Venezuela led decliners in the region with a fall of 1.20% followed by decreases in Peru of 0.54% and in Mexico of 0.03%.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 49.40 or 0.91% to 5,366.20, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 9.68 or 0.23% to close at 4,283.66 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 23.09 or 0.37% to close at 6,210.32. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 68.02 or 0.95% to close at 7,121.43.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 54.02 or 0.44% to 12,346.63, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong decreased 491.33 or 2.40% closed to 19,999.78.ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 74.60 or 1.50% to close 4,905.50. The KL Composite index in Malaysia decreased 5.85 or 0.55% closed to 1,062.70.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 10.48 or 0.72% to close at 1,464.98, SET index in Thailand closed lower 8.07 or 1.22% to 655.54 and JSE Index in Indonesia decreased 73.71 or 3.76% to 1,885.04. The Sensex index in India decreased 238.15 or 1.60% closed to 14,662.61.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil decreased $0.47 to close at $102.79 a barrel for a front month contract, natural gas decreased 14 cent to $7.39 per mBtu and gasoline futures increased 2.54 cents to close at 267.80 cents per gallon.

Gold decreased $33.10 in New York trading to close at $758.90 per ounce, silver closed down $0.92 cents to $10.79 per ounce and copper for the front month delivery increased 3.55 cent to $3.12 per pound.

Wheat futures closed down 4.75 cents in Chicago trading and closed at $7.25 a bushel. Sugar decreased 0.03 cent to 13.88 cents a pound. Soybean future closed down 23.00 cents to $11.78 a bushel.

Dollar edged higher against euro to $1.39 and edged higher against yen to 107.78.

Yields on U.S. bonds increased to 3.63% with 10 years of maturities and increased to 4.23% with 30-year of maturities.