Wall Street edges up after sell-off Europe in focus

MARKETS-USA-STOCKS:Wall Street edges up after sell-off Europe in focus

new York  June 26, 2012, 19:28 IST

new York  06 26, 2012, 19:30 IST

 

U.S. stocks advanced modestly on Tuesday, with investors exercising caution as a Spanish bill auction met with falling demand ahead of a summit by EU leaders later in the week.

Flagging optimism about the summit this week sent stocks lower in the prior session, but ongoing worries provoked only moderate buying interest.

"There is not a reason in the world to buy the market this morning, certainly nothing in the overnight that would suggest there is any kind of a good foundational reason to buy the market - even an oversold condition," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital in Jersey City, New Jersey.

A notable exception was JPMorgan Chase & Co which rose 1.6 percent to $35.90 as one of the top boosts to both the Dow and S&P after Goldman Sachs added the bank to its America's conviction buy list, citing its capital and earnings power.

Spain's short-term borrowing costs nearly tripled at auction when the country sold 3.08 billion euros of its short-term debt, as the Treasury paid the highest rates to sell the paper since November.

Finance chiefs of the euro zone's four biggest economies will hold last-minute talks in Paris on Tuesday evening to discuss managing the crisis in the short term and proposals for closer long-term fiscal and banking integration in preparation for the summit on Thursday and Friday.

According to a document prepared for the meeting, European leaders will discuss specific steps toward a cross-border banking union, closer fiscal integration and the possibility of a debt redemption fund.

European shares advanced on gains by heavyweight utility stocks, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index adding 0.4 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 21.72 points, or 0.17 percent, to 12,524.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4.68 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,318.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 15.24 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,851.40.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas showed single-family home prices gained 0.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, the third climb in a row, topping economists' expectations of 0.4 percent.

At 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), the Conference Board releases its June consumer confidence report. Economists in a Reuters survey expect the main index to read 63.5 compared with 64.9 in May.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is thinking of splitting into two companies, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation. Shares jumped 6.1 percent to $21.31.