US Market fights for a late recovery

Nasdaq outpaces other indices with help of Apple which crosses $200 for first time

US Market ended little higher today, Wednesday, 26 December, 2007 with the Nasdaq clearly outpacing the other two indices. Trading volume was quite light as expected due to the ongoing holiday season. Traders became concerned with disappointing holiday sales figure and also some weak housing report.

Apple shares crossed the $200/mark for the first time ever. Crude oil prices shot up and crossed the $96/barrel once again as traders expected a drawdown in crude inventories in tomorrow’s report.

The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a mere gain of 2.36 points at 13,551.7. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished higher by 10.9 points at 2,724.41. S&P 500 finished edged higher by 1.2 points at 1,497.7.

Twelve out of thirty Dow stocks ended higher for the day. Citigroup and Walt Disney were a couple of the major Dow laggards. Exxon Mobil, Caterpillar and IBM were a few Dow winners. Alcoa and GE were a couple of main Dow winners for the day.

Target was today’s worst performing retail stock after the company warned its December same-store sales will come up short of expectations. The company said it now expects sales to be down 1% to up 1%, well below the previous forecast that called for sales to rise 3% to 5%.

Also, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index indicated October home prices dropped a more than expected 6.1% on a y-o-y basis. Market expected a drop of 5.7%.

Apple shares cross $200 mark for first time ever

Dow remained in the red for most part of the day. It inched up in the green territory in the final hour of trading after much dillydallying. Five out of ten economic sectors posted loss today.

Apple shares were mainly responsible for taking Nasdaq higher. Shares of Apple crossed $200 mark for the first time due to higher iPod, iPhone and Macintosh sales.

Indian ADRs ended in green today. ICICI Bank was the topmost winner gaining 3.4%. It was followed by Wipro Technologies which gained 2.3%.

Expectations of lower crude inventory and Turkish air strikes sent crude prices almost $2/barrel higher today. Prices have been on a roll since last Friday, 21 December and have gained more than $5/barrel since then. Prices once again crossed the $96/barrel mark today. Price also rose as the greenback slipped against its rival currencies.

Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for February delivery closed at $95.97/barrel (higher by $1.84/barrel or 2%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures rose as high as $96.6 earlier in the day. Prices are 57% higher than the year before.

On the New York Stock Exchange, more than 838 million shares were traded, with declining stocks roughly equaling advancing stocks. More than 1.2 billion shares exchanged hands on the Nasdaq, with advancers outpacing decliners by 16 to 13.

Tomorrow, investors will focus on economic reports to set the tone of trading. The Commerce Dept.'s Durable Orders report is scheduled to hit the wires at 8:30 ET, along with unemployment claims for the week ended 15 December. Those reports will be followed by the Energy Dept.'s weekly inventories report at 10:30 ET.