U.S. Indexes Rally; BofA Raises $19 B

123jump.com Staff
04 Dec, 2009
New York City

The U.S. benchmark indexes gained after the release of November unemployment data. The job losses in the month declined to 11,000 and unemployment rate decreased to 10%. Bank of America raised $19.3 billion and plans to repay TARP funds of $45 billion.

[R]11:30 AM, New York – The U.S. benchmark indexes gained after the release of November unemployment data. The job losses in the month declined to 11,000 and unemployment rate decreased to 10%. Bank of America raised $19.3 billion and plans to repay TARP funds of $45 billion.[/R]

Stocks and dollar gained after the release of November unemployment data. Three popular indexes increased at least 1% and gold dropped more than 2%. The dollar gained against most major currencies and Treasuries declined.

November non-farm payroll employment decreased 11,000 and unemployment rate fell to 10%. The data surprised most economists who were looking for at least 130,000 job losses in the month.

The largest job losses were in construction, manufacturing and information sectors. In last three months payroll job losses had averaged 135,000 a month.

New orders for manufactured goods in October, up six of the last seven months, increased $2.1 billion or 0.6% to $360.5 billion. This followed a 1.6% September decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.5%.

Bank of America increased 1.9% to $16.06 after it completed the sale of 1.3 billion shares to raise $19.3 billion at a $15 a share price. The lender plans to repay the U.S. government $45 billion

Earnings Review

Big Lots, Inc, the closeout retailer reported third quarter sales rose 2% to $1.04 billion from $1.02 billion a year ago. Net income in the quarter rose 148.3% to $30.3 million or 37 cents per diluted share compared to net income of $12.2 million or 15 cents per share a year ago.

Comparable same-store sales decreased 0.2%.

Royal Bank of Canada, the bank reported fourth quarter revenues rose 47% to $7.46 billion from $5.07 billion a year ago. Net income in the quarter rose 10.7% to $1.24 billion or 82 cents per diluted share compared to net income of $1.12 billion or 81 cents per share a year ago.

Total revenues for the fiscal year 2009 rose 34.7% to $29.1 billion from $21.6 billion a year ago. Net income for the year fell 15.4% to $3.86 billion or $2.57 per diluted share compared to net income of $4.56 billion or $3.38 per share a year ago.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed higher 44.92 or 0.45% to 10,022.59, and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong decreased 55.72 or 0.25% to 22,498.15, and CSI 300 index in China higher 52.62 or 1.47% to 3,643.49. ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 72.40 or 1.52% to 4,702.20. The FTSE Bursa KL Composite index in Malaysia was lower 2.15 or 0.17% to 1,270.20.

The Kospi Index in South Korea increased 9.76 or 0.60% to close at 1,624.76. SET index in Thailand closed lower 5.26 or 0.74% to 701.58. JSE Index in Indonesia increased 11.51 or 0.46% to 2,511.54. The Sensex index in India decreased 84.14 or 0.49% to 17,101.54.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index traded lower 32.17 or 0.61% to 5,280.83, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 20.68 or 0.54% to 3,778.43 and in Frankfurt DAX index traded lower 28.74 or 0.50% to 5,741.61. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 32.37 or 0.50% to 6,411.71.