Late in the session, Dow recovers most of its early day losses
Taking cues from global equity markets across the world, US Market ended mixed today, Monday, 03 March, 2008 with S&P 500 being the only index to register some gains. But the US Market managed to shelter itself from any huge loss. Economic reports dominated the entire day. They were mixed in nature. But the dollar sunk to a new all time low against the euro today and to a three year low against the yen. Commodities touched an all time high today with both crude oil and goad touching new highs. Eight of the ten economic sectors posted gains today. Financials and technology were the only two sectors to post losses.
After being down by more than 100 points at one time, The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a loss of 7.5 points at 12,258.8. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished lower by 12.8 points at 2,258.7. S&P 500 finished higher by 0.71 points at 1,331. Fifteen out of thirty Dow stocks ended in the red today led by Boeing and GM.
In economic news, The February Institute of Supply Management Index (ISM), a national manufacturing survey, fell to 48.3, compared to the expected reading of 48. Because the reading is below 50, it reflects a contraction in manufacturing in the United States.
Also, The Commerce Department reported that January construction spending fell 1.7% month over month. This was a larger slide than the expected decline of 0.7%.
The Nasdaq continued to remain under pressure today due to weakness in large cap tech names like Apple, Google, RIMM and Microsoft.
Boeing loses Air Force deal to Northrop Grumman
On the other side, the financial sector was among those hit, with bond insurers lapsing after billionaire Warren Buffett said that he had withdrawn his offer to reinsure $800 billion in municipal bonds guaranteed by MBIA, Ambac etc.
Shares of Boeing were badly hammered today after there were reports that the company lost out to Europe based Northrop Grumman to provide special aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force.
All Indian ADRs ended in the red today. HDFC Bank and MTNL topped the list of the decliners, each shedding more than 5.2%.
Crude prices rose by almost $2 today, during intraday trading and almost kissed the $104/barrel mark but then gave up mart of its gains and closed modestly higher at the end. Prices increased after the dollar fell to new lows against most of its counterparts, and bumped into a new low against euro and a three year low against the yen. Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for April delivery today closed at $102.45/barrel (higher by $0.61/barrel or 0.6%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are 66% higher than a year ago. It touched an intra day high price of $103.9/barrel today.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped 1.5 billion shares, and declining issues outran advancers 8 to 7. On the Nasdaq, 1 billion shares were exchanged, and declining stocks outpaced those advancing by about 9 to 5.
Tomorrow there are economic reports on the dock. But Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaking about reducing mortgage foreclosures will garner much added attention.