US Market ends flat and mixed

Technology stocks drag down market and indices give up all of earlier gains

US Market ended flat but mixed today, Thursday, 03 January, 2008 ignoring a couple of better-than-expected economic reports. After staying in the green for almost entire day, stocks witnessed sell-off in the last hour of trading. Dow, still managed to eke out small gain at the end. Nasdaq ended in the red.

Crude prices continued to hover around the $100/barrel mark. Commodities rallied for the second straight day. Seven out of ten sectors managed to end in the green, the exceptions being Financials, Consumer Staples, and Consumer Discretionary.

The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a gain of 12.76 points at 13,056.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished lower by 6.95 points at 2,602.68. S&P 500 finished unchanged at 1,447.16.

Twenty out of thirty Dow stocks ended in the green today. Altria, United Technologies, CocoCola, AT&T and Pfizer were the top gainers. GM, Wal-Mart and American Express were the main Dow laggards.

Stocks today opened modestly higher following a better than expected private employment report. The ADP employment came in modestly better than expected, which gave the stock market a slight boost. The ADP said private employment grew 40K in December, compared to the expected 33K rise.

Also, the Department of Commerce reports that November factory orders rose by 1.5%. Market expected orders to rise by 1%.

But technology sector continued to play the spoilt sport today. And due to tech stocks, indices were dragged down in spite of some encouraging economic data.

Auto companies declare mixed December sales

In the automobile sector, Ford, Toyota and General Motors reported lower December sales. Chrysler and Honda Motor reported small gains. Ford and GM shares ended lower today.

Merck edged lower today after the drugmaker said it would pay as much as $702 million to Switzerland's Addex to license a potential schizophrenia treatment.

Indian ADRs ended mixed today. MTNL and Tata Motors ekded out some gains around 1%. Dr Reddys was the top loser shedding 2.5%.

Commodities rally for second consecutive day

Crude prices crossed the $100/barrel mark once again during intraday trading today, but gave up earlier gains and closed finally lower for the day. Crude oil fell after weekly inventory report by Energy Department showed that U.S. gasoline and diesel inventories rose as refineries increased operating rates. Today crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for February delivery closed at $99.12/barrel (lower by $0.50/barrel or 0.5 %) on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped 1.3 billion, while more than 1.9 billion shares traded on the Nasdaq. Declining stocks outpaced those advancing by roughly 8 to 7 on the NYSE, while decliners also ran ahead of advancers on the Nasdaq, by about 3 to 1.

Tomorrow will be another day when investors will focuss on the economic reports to set the tone of trading. December's unemployment and payroll data are due tomorrow before market opens. December's ISM Services Index will hit the wires just after market opens.