16 April 2008 | 08:59
US Market manages to end higher
Upbeat economic data and positive earning report helped US Market ended the day with gains today, Tuesday, 15 April, 2008. Other than that, crude oil reached a record high. Financials posted the session's largest advance after dragging on the market's performance yesterday. Health care and telecom were the only two sectors to finish in negative territory.
Dow was down by as much as 20 points earlier during the day. But it traded in the green in the second half. At the end, The Dow Jones industrial Average ended with a gain of 60.4 points at 12,362. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished higher by 10.2 points at 2,286. S&P 500 finished higher by 6.1 points at 1,334.4.
JP Morgan, Alcoa and Wal-Mart were the main Dow winners today. Boeing and IBM led the group of Dow decliners.
Before market opened, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that producer prices rose 1.1% in March, which was well ahead of the 0.6% consensus estimate. That increase was driven primarily by higher energy and food costs. Excluding those items, producer prices were up just 0.2% in March.
Also, the New York Empire State Index, which is a regional manufacturing report that was released at the same time as the PPI data, and was better than expected and this contributed to the positive bias in the early-going.
On the earnings front, Johnson & Johnson reported first quarter earnings that surpassed expectations. The company also raised its full year 2008 guidance range by one penny. Also, relatively good earnings news from several financial companies, including U.S. Bancorp and State Street played a part in pushing the major indices higher at the start of trading.
Crude prices rose to record highs today due to some supply disruptions and also as traders started accumulating moir of commodities due to the dampened situation in the equity market. Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for May delivery closed at $113.79/barrel (higher by $2.03/barrel or 1.8%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude prices are 80% higher on a yearly basis. For the year, crude is up by 17% till date.
In the currency market today, the dollar was off its lows from overnight thanks to bullish data, but still remained weak. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of currencies, edged up 0.2% to 71.93.
Trading volumes showed 1.2 billion shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange, with gaining issues topping decliners by 3 to 2. On the Nasdaq Stock Market, 789 million shares traded, with gainers topping decliners by 7 to 6.
Tomorrow, Abbot Labs, Coca-Cola, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo will lead action, reporting their latest earnings results prior to the stock market's open. There is also a considerable amount of economic reports due tomorrow. Leading off, market participants will pay close attention to March's Consumer Price Index Report and Housing starts for March before opening bell. The Industrial Product Report for March will follow together with the weekly crude inventory report. Lastly, the Fed's Beige Book, a regional survey of anecdotal data, is due in the afternoon.
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