United States: Stocks ends lower on worries of Fed pullback

Headline indices on the US stock market closed lower on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, as the market weighed exit signals on the Federal Reserve's exceptionally loose monetary policy.

US shares rallied during the early part of morning as the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in testimony to Congress that easing measures continue to benefit the economy. Bernanke added withdrawing monetary stimulus could threaten the country's economic recovery as well as price stability.

But stocks took a decisive downward lurch in afternoon after the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Markets Committee April 30-May 1 meeting that came hours after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testimony. The minutes revealed monetary stimulus measures designed to keep long-term interest rates low were bringing significant benefits and monetary authorities favor scaling back stimulus measures as early as June.

At the finish of the business, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 80.41 (0.52%) to 15,307.17. The broad-based S&P 500 gave up 13.81 (0.83%) at 1,655.35, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index sank 38.82 (1.11%) to 3,463.30.

Among individual movers, NetApp shares gained 1.8% to $37.28 after the data storage company announced better than expected fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 69 cents a share on Tuesday and planned to cut 900 jobs as part of a restructuring. NetApp said it would begin paying a quarterly dividend of 15 cents a share, and it boosted its stock buyback plan to $3 billion.

Intuit shares advanced 1.2% to $58.59 after the software producer booked fiscal third quarter earnings that exceeded estimates by four cents at $2.97 a share and sales that also beat expectations as online customers for its small business services increased.

Shares of Target lost 4% to $68.40 after the retailer cut its full-year earnings estimate, citing colder than usual weather hurt the beginning of its spring season. Target reported first quarter earnings of $498 million as sales climbed just 1% to $16.71 billion.

Hewlett-Packard shares ended 0.6% higher at $21.23 ahead quarterly results after the market close. In after-market trading, shares in HP rose 14% as the company raised its 2013 earnings outlook after positing better than expected quarterly results.

On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that existing-home sales rose in April but remained below the underlying demand because of limited inventory and tight credit. Total existing-home sales increased 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March.

Indian ADRs ended lower on Wednesday. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was down 1.8% and ICICI Bank was down 0.4%. In the Telecom space, Tata Communication was down 1.9%. In the IT space, Infosys declined 1.1% while Wipro was up 0.5%. In the other space, Sterlite dropped 2.1% and Tata Motors was down 1.4%, while Dr Reddys rose 1.8%.

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