Technology sector tries to push up US stocks

Nasdaq is the only index which manages to register marginal gains

Stocks at Wall Street kicked off Friday, 28 August, 2009 on a strong mode. But stocks soon slipped. Better-than-expected earnings from Dell, an upside earnings surprise and upside outlook from Marvell Tech, and an upbeat revenue forecast from Intel gave stocks an early boost on Friday. But profit-takers quickly stepped in and indices lipped in the red. Even the earning reports did not come in as bright as expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by 36.43 points at 9,544.2. The Nasdaq Composite Index, ended higher by 1.04 points at 2,028.77. S&P 500 ended lower by 2.05 points at 1,028.93.

The technology sector had many surprises to deliver on Friday. Most of them were good ones. It was mainly because of these that Nasdaq became the only index to register gains.

Dell announced its earning report after Thursday's close which was better than expected. Though the company's revenue was still down from the previous year, management stated that sequential improvement in its top line is consistent with the view that demand has stabilized.

Intel showed confidence in demand by announcing that its revenue forecast for the third quarter increased to approximately $9 billion from $8.5 billion. The consensus forecast was pegged at roughly $8.5 billion.

Fellow semiconductor outfit Marvell Tech had plenty of good news of its own to offer. The company announced that it brought in a better-than-expected adjusted $0.18 per share for its latest quarter. The company also issued a third quarter earnings forecast that topped the consensus outlook.

Among economic reports expected on Friday, data showed that U.S. personal incomes were unchanged in July as consumer spending increased 0.2%, led by higher outlays for autos and other durable goods. In a separate report, the University of Michigan/Reuters survey showed that U.S. consumer sentiment improved in late August, but not by enough to exceed the reading from July, 2009.

Crude prices erased earlier losses and ended higher for the day on Friday, 28 August, 2009. Prices crawled up today following some hopes about current economic scenario from the latest economic data. On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for October delivery closed at $72.74/barrel (higher by $0.25 or 0.3%). During intra day trading, crude fell to a low of $71.58 and also rose to a high of $73.3/barrel. For the week, crude ended higher by 9.5%. It was the biggest weekly gain for crude in three months.

Trading volume was well below the longer-term averages by coming in below 1.2 billion shares on the NYSE this session.

Most of the Indian ADrs ended in the red on Friday. Rediff and HDFC Bank were the sole exception. Sify was the main loser shedding 2.8%. Rediff and HDFC bank gained 1.7% and 1.6% respectively.