US stocks end higher despite mediocre data

Strong expectations from Intel earnings fuel a modest rally at Wall Street

Buoyed by the healthcare, technology and financial sectors, US stocks registered modest gains on Thursday, 14 January 2010. Though economic data for the day checked in worse than expected, stocks found momentum from earning expectation from tech bellwether Intel that was due to report its earnings after today's close.

At the end of the day on Thursday, 14 January, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 29.78 points at 10,710.55. Nasdaq ended higher by 8.84 points at 2316.74. S&P 500 ended higher by 2.78 points at 1148.46. Earlier in the day, Dow opened the session lower by 5 points.

Four of ten economic sectors ended in the green led by healthcare, technology, energy, and financial sectors. Telecom and material sectors lagged. Consumer staples were the only sector to finish unchanged.

JP Morgan Chase and Intel were the main Dow winners while AT&T, Verizon, WalMart and Walt Disney were the main Dow losers.

Intel, which was scheduled to report its latest quarterly results after the closing bell, led the tech sector to a modest gain today.

Materials stocks were weak once again today. The sector was down amid renewed weakness in shares of Monsanto. The Justice Dept. in US confirmed that it is investigating the possibility of anticompetitive practices in the seed industry.

Among economic data expected for the day, The Commerce Department in US reported on Thursday, 14 January 2010 that U.S. retail sales was disappointing in December, falling a seasonally adjusted 0.3% on widespread weakness across different kinds of stores. The decline was unexpected. Market was forecasting a 0.5% gain.

Auto sales disappointed in December, dropping 0.8% in dollar terms even as the automakers reported higher unit sales. Excluding the 0.8% decline in auto sales, retail sales fell 0.2%.

Separately, The Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 14 January 2010 that first-time jobless claims rose last week by the largest amount in five weeks. Initial claims rose by 11,000 to 444,000 in the week ended 9 January 2010. This was the highest level since mid-December. The average number of workers filing claims over the past four weeks fell by 9,000 to 440,750. This is the lowest since late August 2008. The four-week average is considered a better gauge of the labor market than the volatile weekly number.

A separate report showed U.S. business inventories rose slightly more than expected, up 0.4% in November, to $1.3 trillion, fueled chiefly by rising wholesale and manufacturing stockpiles.

Crude oil prices ended lower for fourth straight day on Thursday, 14 January 2010. Prices fell following disappointing batch of economic data spurring concerns about demand for oil in coming months. Prices also slipped as energy department reported yesterday in its latest weekly inventory report more than expected buildup in crude inventories for last week.

On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for February delivery closed at $79.29/barrel (lower by $0.26 or 0.3%). Crude ended last week higher by 4.3%. On a year to date basis till date, crude is lower by 0.3%.

In the currency market on Thursday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of dollar against the basket of six other currencies erased earlier gains and fell by almost 0.1%.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Thursday, 14 January 2010. Wipro Technologies shed the most slipping 6.8%. Rediff.com gained 2%.

Tomorrow, the day will feature economic reports including CPI, core CPI and Empire Manufacturing Survey.