Natural Gas Plunges 8%, U.S. Stocks Waver

123jump.com Staff
17 Sep, 2009
New York City

U.S. stocks edged lower after the release of housing construction data and weekly jobless claims. Home builders advanced. Natural gas plunged 8% as rising inventories and the recent price run up kept investors on the sidelines.

[R]4:30 PM New York, 9:30 PM London, 6:30 AM Sydney – U.S. stocks edged lower after the release of housing construction data and weekly jobless claims. Home builders advanced. Natural gas plunged 8% as rising inventories and the recent price run up kept investors on the sidelines.[/R]

U.S. stocks wavered in the early trading after the release jobless data and housing starts and completion report. Markets at close declined as investors scaled back on the worries of valuation. Job market remains weak for most industries as construction and financial services linked states continue to shed employment.

Housing permits in August increased 2.7% to 579,000 from the revised July rate but is still below 32.4% from a year ago. Single family permits decreased 0.2% to 462,000. Housing starts increased 1.5% to 598,000 but 29.6% lower than a year ago.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment claims decreased 12,000 to 545,000 in the week ending Sept 12. The insured unemployment rate increased 0.1% to 4.7%. For the year so far on average 5.64 million people are collecting jobless claims.

Home builders edged higher after the release of home construction data. Weekly jobless claims declined 12,000 to 545,000 at the end of last week. AMR Corp raised $1 billion through credit card sale and $1.9 billion in plane lease financing.

AMR Corp, the parent of American Airlines surges after it arranges $2.9 billion in financing. This liquidity is in addition to the $1.3 billion capital raised earlier in the year. American Air will also upgrade American Eagle flight cabins and increase daily flights and capacity at its four hubs.

Ivanhoe Energy soared after it discovered energy field in Ecuador. Oracle declined after quarterly sales increased less than expected. Spirit AeroSystems Holdings and ArcelorMittal were in focus on ratings revisions.

UK stocks closed at a new high after gaining for the fifth day in a row. Retail sales were flat in August after rising for two months in a row. Balfour Beatty plans to raise £350 million to pay for an acquisition. Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland surge after Irish government acquires bad loans.

European markets edged higher as investors show willingness to acquire more stocks. Airbus is likely to cut production for the next two years. Trade surplus at EU-16 nations increased to €6.8 billion in July from €2.3 billion in June. Construction output in the region declined 2%.

North American Markets

Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 7.79 or 0.08% to a close of 9,783.92, S&P 500 Index decreased 3.27 or 0.3% to 1,065.49, and Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 6.40 or 0.3% to close at 2,126.75. Toronto TSX Composite Index advanced 27.37 or 0.3% to 11,528.23.

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 160 increased, 339 declined and 1 was unchanged.

Eastman Kodak Company led the decliners in the S&P 500 index with a loss of 11.2% followed by losses in Moody’s Corp of 7%, in KeyCorp of 6.7%, in Principal Financial Group, Inc of 5.9% and in E*Trade Financial of 5.9%.

Valero Energy led gainers in the S&P 500 index with a rise of 6.6% followed by gains in Citigroup Inc 5.2%, in Pitney Bowes Inc of 4.5%, in Lockheed Martin of 4.6% and in Harman International of 4.4%.

South American Markets Indexes

Mexico Bolsa Index increased 392.70 or 1.3% to 30,017.72 and Brazil Bovespa Stock Index decreased 174.63 or 0.3% to 60,236.03.

Argentina Merval Index closed up 2% and Chile Stock Market Select index edged higher 0.7%, Peru Lima General Index edged up 0.5% and Colombia IGBC General Index decreased 0.4%.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 13.17 or 0.46% to 5,163.95, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 21.48 or 0.56% to close at 3,835.27, in Frankfurt DAX index higher 30.88 or 0.54% to close at 5,731.14. In Zurich trading SMI increased 17.81 or 0.28% to close at 6,317.72.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 173.03 or 1.68% to 10,443.80, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong increased 365.59 or 1.71% to 21,768.51 and CSI 300 index in China higher 61.86 or 1.90% to 3,320.10. ASX 200 index in Australia increased 64.50 or 1.39% to 4,714.90. The FTSE Bursa KL Composite index in Malaysia closed higher 5.82 or 0.48% to 1,218.80.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 12.14 or 0.72% to close at 1,695.47. SET index in Thailand closed lower 1.02 or 0.14% to 709.23 and JSE Index in Indonesia increased 17.63 or 0.72% to 2,456.99. The Sensex index in India increased 34.07 or 0.20% to 16,711.11.

Commodities, Metals, and Currencies

Crude oil decreased $0.12 to $72.39 a barrel for a front month contract, natural gas edged down 29 cents to $3.47 per mBtu and gasoline increased 0.37 cents to 185.20 cents.

Wheat futures closed down 5.50 cents in Chicago trading to $4.61 a bushel. Sugar edged up to 0.07 cents a pound to 23.93 cents. Soybean future closed down 2.50 cent to $9.53 a bushel.

Gold decreased $6.20 in New York trading to close at $1,014.00 per ounce, silver closed down $0.18 to $17.25 per ounce and copper for the front month delivery decreased 3.55 cent to $2.90 per pound.

Dollar edged higher against euro to $1.473 and closed higher against the Japanese yen to 91.06.

Yield on 10-year U.S. bonds decreased to 3.38% and with 30-year maturities was decreased to 4.17%.