U.S. Stocks Rise; Oil, Gold Fall

123jump.com Staff
11 Mar, 2009
New York City

World stock markets traded volatile. UK trade deficit soared and exports from China dropped 26%. Machinery orders in Japan dropped 19% and corporate bankruptcies surged. Crude oil dropped 8% to $42.33. Gold edged lower.

[R]5:00PM New York – 11:00PM Frankfurt, 4:00AM Sydney – World stock markets traded volatile. UK trade deficit soared and exports from China dropped 26%. Machinery orders in Japan dropped 19% and corporate bankruptcies surged.[/R]

U.S. stocks rose in the morning trading but lost the momentum in the afternoon. Banks traded volatile after UBS predicted tough market environment for the brokerage firm. American Express traded lower on rating downgrade and Morgan Stanley traded higher on an upgrade. Vail Resorts gained on earnings.

U.K. stocks tumbled 0.6% after trade deficit soared more-than-forecasted in January on weakening demand. Deficit on trade in goods is provisionally estimated to have widened to £7.7 billion in January from £7.2 billion the previous month.

Machinery orders in Japan fall 18.5% to 1.2 trillion yen in January and a private report suggested that corporate bankruptcies increase to 1,318 in February, a rise above 1,300 for the first time in six years.

Hong Kong stocks rose 2% buoyed by a media report suggesting Citigroup has been profitable in the first two months of the year. However, Shanghai stocks tumbled after exports from China dropped sharply in February. Exports fell 25.7% to $64.9 billion in February from the same period a year ago.

Australian market averages rose 1.9% after a private report showed that consumer confidence fell less-than-expected. The large economic stimulus package helped to revive consumer confidence but most are still in the wait and see mode. Weak commodities stocks trimmed market gains.

American Markets Reviews

Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 3.91 or 0.06% to a close of 6,930.40, S&P 500 Index gained 1.76 or 0.24% to 721.36, and Nasdaq Composite Index increased 13.36 or 0.98% to a close of 1,371.64. In Toronto TSX Composite increased 130.61 or 1.66% to close at 8,011.02.

In Latin American trading, Mexico Bolsa Index decreased 79.08 or 0.46% to 16,964.36 and Brazil Bovespa Stock Index decreased 363.74 or 0.98% to 36,741.35.

Argentina increased 0.01%, Chile increased 0.47%, Peru edged lower 0.6% and Colombia decreased 0.5%. Venezuela increased 0.53%.

U.S. Stock Movers

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 280 increased, 210 declined and 13 were unchanged.

McKesson Corp led the decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 17.1% followed by losses in Developers Diversified of 11.9%, in CB Richard Ellis of 11.8%, in Cardinal Health of 9.8%, in AmerisourceBergen of 9.70%.

Lincoln National Corp led gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 12.7% followed by gains in Office Depot Inc of 11.9%, in International Paper of 11.1%, in Micron Tech of 11.11% and in Zions Bancorp of 10.7%.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 321.14 or 4.55% to 7,376.12, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 236.61 or 2.02% closed to 11,930.66, CSI 300 index in China lower 20.40 or 0.91% closed to 2,220.38. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 59.90 or 1.88% closed to 3,244.40. The KL Composite index in Malaysia lower 4.88 or 0.57% closed to 850.37.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 35.31 or 3.23% to close at 1,127.51. SET index in Thailand closed lower 3.00 or 0.72% to 414.41 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 14.30 or 1.10% closed to 1,314.52. The Markets of India were closed today.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 21.42 or 0.58% to 3,693.81, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 10.52 or 0.39% to close at 2,674.20 and in Frankfurt DAX index higher 27.12 or 0.70% to close at 3,914.10. In Zurich trading SMI increased 64.42 or 1.43% to close at 4,576.97.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

Yields on 10-year bond were unchanged at 2.90% and on 30-year bonds increased to 3.66%.

The U.S. dollar edged lower to $1.2844 to a euro and against the Japanese yen inched lower to 97.32 yen.

Immediate futures prices of Texas crude oil decreased $3.38 to $42.33 a barrel, for natural decreased 4.2 cents to $3.79 per mbtu and gasoline prices decreased 4.66 cents to 125.07 cents a gallon.

Futures of corn decreased 11.00 cent to $3.67, soybean decreased 15 cents to $8.62, sugar edged higher to 0.22 a pound to 12.81 and wheat decreased 24.50 cents to $5.0825 a bushel.

In metals trading, copper prices increased 2.15 cents to $1.6470 a pound, gold decreased $3.70 to $907.00 per ounce and silver decreased 0.05 cent to $12.47.