US Market gains back most of yesterday’s loss

Citigroup and overall financial sector pull stocks up

US Market erased much of its yesterday’s losses and financial sector took the indices higher today, Tuesday, 27 November, 2007. A major investment by a Abu-Dhabi company in Citigroup was the main reason for investors to cheer today. Market just ignored the mixed economic data. Crude prices slipped by more than $3/barrel. Nine out of ten economic sectors posted gains today, led by a financial shares.

The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a gain of 215 points at 12,958. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished higher by 40 points at 2,580. S&P 500 finished higher by 21 points at 1,428.

Twenty-six out of thirty Dow stocks ended in green. Citigroup and Intel were the main Dow winners today.

After being hammered bad since the last few weeks, Citigroup lent a good support to Dow today following news that Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will invest $7.5 billion to acquire a 4.9% stake in Citigroup. The investment will make ADIA the bank's largest shareholder.

London based Barclays also announced today that the bank will report FY 07 earnings broadly in line with expectations. This also gave the finance sector another good boost.

But the economic data that came out today were not very encouraging. As per the Conference Board, U.S. consumer confidence index fell to 87.3 from 95.2, well below the 90.2 expected by the market. It was the lowest level and the biggest one-month decline since Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005.

Intel soars by more than 3%

Apple and Google together with Intel gave the Technology sector the much needed lift. Apple and Google shares, each rose more than 1% while Intel soared by 3%.

Meanwhile, according to the national Case-Shiller price index released by Standard & Poor's, U.S. home prices fell 4.5% in the year ending in the third quarter. Prices fell 1.7% compared with the second quarter. It's by far the largest price decline in the 20 years covered by the index.

Most of the Indian ADRs ended in green today. VSNL was the main winner soaring by more than 8%. It was followed by HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, gaining 6.8% and 6.5% respectively.

Crude oil drops to lowest level in a week

Crude oil price was at its lowest level in a week after traders speculated that Gulf members of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are in serious discussions about boosting output by upwards of 750,000 barrels a day when they meet on 5 December in Abu Dhabi. Price also slipped after Saudi Arabia's oil minister said the country increased production to the highest this year.

Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $94.4/barrel (lower by $3.3/barrel or 3.4%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fell to $94.2/barrel during intraday trading. Prices are up 56% from a year ago.

On the New York Stock Exchange, volume topped 1.6 billion shares, and advancing stocks outran those declining 2 to 1. On the Nasdaq, 2.1 billion shares exchanged hands, with advancing stocks beating decliners roughly 4 to 3.

Tomorrow, investors will look for new economic data, along with a host of earnings reports, to help set the tone of trading. Durable Orders report will be released before market opens followed by Existing Home Sales for October. Also garnering attention, will be the Energy Dept.'s weekly inventories report and Federal Reserve’s Beige Book report.