Mixed finish at Wall Street

Dow manages to erase earlier losses and end higher

Stocks at Wall Street ended on a mixed mode on Tuesday, 12 May, 2009. The Dow ended higher while Nasdaq and S&P 500 ended lower. US stocks had been lingering in the red in a day where there has been no major news flow. Crude prices ended higher today.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 50 points at 8,469. The Nasdaq Composite Index, ended lower by 15 points at 1,715. S&P 500 ended lower by 0.89 points at 908.8.

Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Wal-Mart, were the main Dow winners today. JP Morgan Chase, American Express, and Citigroup were the main Dow decliners.

The weakness in the market was broad based. But weakness mainly came from the technology and financial sectors.

There was absolutely no market moving news since morning today. Dow had climbed up higher after the economic report on trade deficit hit the wires today.

The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday, 12 May, 2009, that the U.S. trade gap with the rest of the world increased in March for the first time in eight months, as exports declined faster than imports.

The trade deficit, the difference between exports and imports, increased by 5.5% to $27.6 billion in March from a nine-year low of $26.1 billion in February as the global recession tightened in major U.S. trading partners in North America, Europe and Asia.

Led by a big decline in capital-goods sales, exports of goods and services fell 2.4% to a seasonally adjusted $123.6 billion in March, the lowest level since August 2006. Nominal exports were down 17% in the past year.

Meanwhile, imports of goods and services fell 1% to $151.2 billion, led by declining purchases of natural gas, clothing and industrial engines. Imports were at the lowest level since September 2004 and were down 27% in the past year.

Microsoft was one of the main Dow laggards today after the company said that it will issue $3.75 billion of senior unsecured notes to help fund working capital requirements, capital expenditures, or share repurchases.

Crude oil ended higher on Tuesday, 12 May, 2009. Prices rose today due to the weak dollar and also on reports that crude imports to China during April registered substantial increase. On Tuesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for June delivery closed at $58.85/barrel (higher by $0.35 or 0.6%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, it fell to $57.81 and also rose to $60.08. Last week, crude ended higher by 10.2%.

China's customs department reported today that the country's imports increased by 13.6% last month to 16.17 million metric tons, or 3.9 million barrels a day. April's imports were still lower compared with the 16.34 million tons China bought from abroad in March, the highest in a year. The country imports about half of its oil consumption, which stood at 7.8 million barrels a day.

EIA said today in a monthly report that it now projected world oil demand to fall by 1.8 million barrels per day in 2009, a decline that is 400,000 barrels larger than the EIA had forecasted last month. The report also said that oil prices will remain flat for the remainder of the year, averaging about $55 a barrel.

In the currency market on Tuesday, the greenback was relatively weak and the dollar index, which weighs the strength of dollar against the basket of six other currencies was down 0.8% at $82.612.

Earnings and economic reports will be in focus tomorrow. Earning reports will feature prominent retailers like Kohl's, Macys and Wal Mart. Economic data will be in focus, with April retail sales at 8:30ET, April import/export prices at 8:30ET and March business inventories at 10:00ET. In addition, the weekly crude inventory report is due at 10:30ET.