Minor gains at Wall Street

Mixed batch of economic data floods Wall Street

US stocks mired in the red for almost the entire day on Thursday, 15 July 2010. Mixed batch of economic data weighed on stocks and stocks ignored some positive earnings from a key bank thereby ending mixed and that too with minor gains. Indices managed to pare most of their earlier losses and end almost flat once again.



For the day, that ended on Thursday, 15 July 2010, Dow ended lower by 7.41 points at 10,359.31. Nasdaq ended lower by 0.71 points at 2,249.08. S&P 500 ended higher by 1.31 points at 1,096.56. Dow was trading lower by 104 points at one point of time.

Six of ten economic sectors ended higher led by utilities and healthcare sectors. Financial, materials, and industrials sectors were the pack of decliners. Energy was the only sector stay unchanged.

On Thursday, Wall Street was flooded with a number of economic data, which were mixed in nature. First, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said manufacturing in the Philadelphia region grew at a slower pace in July.

The Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 15 July 2010 that the number of people submitting initial applications for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 29,000 to 429,000 last week, hitting the lowest level since August 2008. Market had expected first-time claims at a level of 445,000 for the week ended 10 July. Meanwhile, the four-week average of initial claims, a better gauge of employment trends than the volatile weekly number, also fell, down 11,750 to stand at 455,250.

Continuing claims in the week ended 3 July rose 247,000 to a total of 4.68 million. The four-week average of these continuing claims increased as well, rising 22,000 to 4.58 million.

Separate report showed that industrial production rose 0.1% in June, beating expectations of a decline. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said that New York manufacturing expanded in July, but at a much slower pace than previous months.

Also, the Labor Department reported that U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.5% in June, the largest decline since February, led by food prices. The core price index, which excludes energy and food prices, rose 0.1%.

The first of the largest U.S. banks to report earnings today, J.P. Morgan said it earned $4.8 billion in the second quarter, which was better than Wall Street anticipated. But despite this report, financial Dows components like Bank of America and Citigroup slipped.

In the currency market on Thursday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies fell by 1.1%.

Crude oil prices once again ended lower on Thursday, 15 July 2010 at Nymex. On Thursday, crude oil futures for light sweet crude for August delivery closed at $76.62/barrel (lower by $0.42 or 0.6%).

On Thursday, reformulated gasoline for August delivery lost a penny, or 0.3%, to $2.06 a gallon. Natural gas August contract rallied 6.5% today, adding 28 cents to $4.59 per million British thermal units.

Bullion metal prices ended higher on Thursday, 15 July 2010 at Comex. Prices erased earlier losses as Federal Reserve's recent pessimistic view about the US economy increased the appeal of precious metals as an alternate investment. The weak dollar also aided in rising bullion metal prices.

On Thursday, gold for August delivery ended at $1,208.3 an ounce, higher by $1.3 (0.1%) an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the day, prices seesawed between gains and losses. September Comex silver futures ended higher by 7 cents (0.4%) at $18.36 an ounce.

Decliners barely outpaced gainers by 15 to 14 on the New York Stock Exchange, where 1.1 billion shares traded. Composite volume reached 4.7 billion.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Thursday. Tata Motors and ICICI Bank were the main gainers adding 0.8% and 0.3% respectively. Patni Computers and Wipro lost 2.9% and 1.2% respectively.

A number of earning and economic reports are expected tomorrow. Consumer price index and core CPI data are the major economic data expected. Bank of America and Citigroup are scheduled to report earnings.