Flat finish for US stocks

Investors remain jittery amid Greece situation

US stocks ended near flat line on Wednesday, 11 February 2014 after switching between gains and losses earlier in the day. Investors remained jittery, amid worries about whether Greece and its creditors will reach an agreement to avoid a debt default.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 100 points at session lows but recovered by the end of the day to end flat at 17,862.14, off 6.6 points. The Nasdaq Composite, outperformed other indexes and rose 0.4%, to 4,801.18. After a choppy session, the S&P 500 index ended flat at 2,068.53.

Four of the 10 main sectors finished higher, with consumer staples and technology stocks leading gains. Largely thanks to a 2.3% gain in Apple, its most significant component by weighting.

Economic data at EWall Street was limited to the MBA Mortgage Index and the Treasury Budget for January. The weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 9.0% to follow last week's 1.3% increase. The Treasury Budget for January revealed a $18.00 billion deficit while the consensus expected a deficit of $19.00 billion.

Traders and investors will closely monitor the outcome of a meeting in Brussels, Belgium Wednesday between European Union officials and Greece. Greece's new government says it is abandoning a good portion of its debt reduction and austerity measures. Those measures were a prerequisite for Greece to get more financing from the European Union. Greece needs a new financing package by the end of this month. Germany is taking a hard line with Greece, saying the country needs to honor its previous obligations.

Among stocks udner focus, AOLbeat earnings expectations, but fell short on revenue. Shares dropped 10%. PepsiCo shares rose 2.5% after the company beat earnings expectations and announced share repurchases and dividend increases. Pier 1 Imports plummeted 24%, after the company cut its earnings-per-share outlook for fiscal 2015 on Tuesday evening.

Bullion metals ended lower at Comex on Wednesday, 11 February 2015. Gold prices ended the U.S. day session lower and notched a four-week low on Wednesday. The precious metals were under selling pressure from a strong U.S. dollar and a resumption of the decline in crude oil prices. Investors awaited the outcome of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Greece's debt obligations to help gauge the next move for financial markets.

Gold for April delivery fell $12.60, or 1%, to settle at $1,219.60 an ounce on Comex. March silver fell 11 cents, or 0.7%, to $16.76 an ounce.

Crude oil prices ended lower at Nymex on EWednesday, 11 February 2015. The increase in U.S. crude inventories shows no sign of a slowdown, and supplies are holding around an 80-year high despite declines in the number of rigs drilling for oil. Oil futures settled below $50 a barrel after U.S. government data Wednesday showed a bigger-than-expected jump in weekly crude inventories.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for delivery in March settled at $48.84 a barrel, down $1.18, or 2.4%. Prices dropped more than 5% on Tuesday.

Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude inventories rose 4.9 million barrels for the week ended 6 February 2015 to total 417.9 million barrelsthe highest level for this time of year in at least the last 80 years. The weekly increase was much larger than the 3.4 million barrels market had expected. The EIA report showed that gasoline supplies also climbed by two million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell 3.3 million barrels.

Treasuries vacillated near their flat lines before ending little changed with the 10-yr yield at 2.00%.

Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (consensus 285K) and the Retail Sales report for January (consensus -0.4%) will be released at 8:30 ET while the December Business Inventories report (consensus 0.2%) will cross the wires at 10:00 ET.

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