Dow claims back its 10,000 level mark

US stocks registered their highest weekly gains in FY 2010 till date for the week, that ended on Friday, 09 July 2010. The Dow once again claimed back its 10,000 level mark. Stocks advanced every session during the week ending its five-day losing streak of last week. Economic data and optimistic GDP forecast from IMF pulled up stocks during the week.



For the week, that ended on Friday, 09 July 2010, Dow ended higher by 511.55 points (5.3%) at 10,198.03. Nasdaq ended higher by 104.66 points (5.0%) at 2,196.45. S&P 500 ended higher by 55.38 points (5.4%) at 1,077.96. All ten economic sectors ended higher led by materials and financial sectors.

During the week, the International Monetary Fund raised its outlook for global economic growth for 2010 and pegged its forecast for U.S. growth at 3.3%. However, the IMF's updated estimate also warned of looming risk coming out of Europe's debt issues.

The International Monetary Fund increased its 2010 world GDP projection to 4.6% from 4.2%. Its overall growth forecast for 2011 was kept at 4.2% as expectations for stronger U.S. growth was offset by expectations for softer growth in the euro area.

Among economic data for the week, the Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 08 July 2010 that the number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits sank 21,000 in the latest week to a still-high 454,000, maintaining a recent see-saw pattern. Market expected a figure around 460,000. Continuing claims fell to a near 20-month low of 4.41 million, but the number should be treated with caution since it likely reflects an abundance of expired benefits.

Among major corporate news, global storage leader EMC Corp said it agreed to acquire Greenplum, a privately held data-warehousing company that specializes in analyzing large amounts of information. In the financial sector, boosting expectations for the second-quarter reports, State Street projected second-quarter profit well above analysts' forecasts raising overall estimates.

On Friday, 09 July, U.S. stocks ended modestly higher. On that day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 58.73 points at 10,197.72. Nasdaq ended higher by 21.05 points at 2196.45. S&P 500 ended higher by 7.68 points at 1077.73. Stocks drifted throughout the season in the absence of any news and light volume provided little direction for stocks.

All ten economic sectors ended higher led by materials, financials, consumer discretionary and industrial sectors. Alcoa, Caterpillar and Chevron led the team of Dow gainers, all gaining in excess of 2%. Google led the rally among Nasdaq components.

US data on Friday showed that wholesale inventories rose in May as warehouses were restocked with durable goods. Wholesale inventories dropped a little, but they were up by almost 15% from May 2009.

Google shares rose on Friday following reports that the Chinese government renewed license it needed to continue using its Chinese web address making a compromise between the company and Chinese regulators since Google decided to stop cooperating with censorship requirement.

Crude oil prices ended higher for third straight day on Friday, 09 July 2010 at Nymex. Prices rose in tandem with US equities and as US wholesale inventories data showed rise in line with expectations. On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for August delivery closed at $76.09/barrel (higher by $0.65 or 0.8%). For the week, prices gained 5.5%. This was highest weekly gain for crude in almost one and half months.

During the week, in the weekly inventory report on oil, energy department reported a decline of 5 million barrels in the nation's crude-oil inventories last week. The market had expected the draw. The EIA also reported an increase of 1.3 million barrels for gasoline stockpiles and an increase of 300,000 for distillates stocks.

On Friday, reformulated gasoline for August delivery added 2 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $2.07 a gallon. For the week, gasoline gained 4.5%.

Also on Friday, natural-gas futures for August delivery climbed by less than a penny to $4.40 per million British thermal units. For the week, natural gas lost 6.8%. Earlier on Thursday, the EIA showed a larger-than-expected increase in natural-gas stockpiles. The EIA reported an increase by 78 billion cubic feet for the week ended 2 July, while market had expected an increase of 70 to 74 billion cubic feet.

Bullion metal prices ended higher on Friday, 09 July 2010 at Comex. Prices rose after traders showed back interest in buying bullion metals following their recent drop in prices. Physical demand for bullion also provided required support as lower precious metal prices increased interest among jewellery buyers in Asia. On Friday, gold for August delivery ended at $1,209.80 an ounce, higher by $13.7 (1.2%) an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the day, it traded with narrow gains. For the week, gold ended higher by 0.2%. On Friday, September Comex silver futures ended higher by 20 cents (1.1%) at $18.07 an ounce. For the week, silver ended higher by 5.6%. For the second quarter,

Indian ADRs ended mostly higher on Friday. Wipro Tech, Infosys and HDFC Bank were the main gainers ending higher by 3.3%, 2.1% and 2% respectively.

For the year, Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are lower by 2.2%, 3.2% and 3.3% respectively. The upcoming week marks the official start to the second quarter earning season with Alcoa reporting after close on Monday.