US stocks end mostly lower but in a mixed fashion

Nasdaq manages to end higher after getting support from Apple

US stocks ended mostly in the red but in a mixed fashion at Wall Street on Thursday, 19 September 2013. After spiking to new record highs yesterday, indices spent the entire session in a slow retreat off their opening levels. Stocks mostly fell, with benchmark indexes retreating from record highs that came with the Federal Reserve's unexpected decision not to begin cutting stimulus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 40.39 points, or 0.3%, at 15,636.55. The S&P 500 index lost 3.18 points, or 0.2%, to 1,722.34. Bucking the negative trend, the Nasdaq Composite gained 5.74 points, or 0.2%, to 3,789.38.

Seven of ten sectors finished in the red while industrials, technology and discretionary shares posted modest gains.

The Federal Open Market Committee failed to announce plans to reduce the pace of its asset purchases, as many had expected. Although the Federal Reserve did not make a tapering announcement, the policy statement did contain updated economic projections. Notably, the forecast for 2013 and 2014 GDP was lowered with the Committee expecting this year's growth between 2.0% and 2.3% (2.3%-2.6% June forecast) and 2014 growth ranging between 2.9% and 3.1% (3.0%-3.5% June projection).

During his press conference, Mr. Bernanke said economic data received since June has not been strong enough to justify scaling back asset purchases just yet. The Fed Chairman also said that recent tightening of financial conditions, as well as the ongoing fiscal uncertainty, played a part in the decision to maintain asset purchases at a pace of $85 billion per month ($40 billion in mortgage-backed securities, $45 billion in Treasuries).

On the economic front at Wall Street today, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index jumped 11.2% to follow its recent string of declines including last week's 13.5% slide. Separately, housing starts increased 0.9% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 891,000. That was a bit below the consensus estimate of 910,000, yet that sting was mitigated by the understanding that single-family starts increased a solid 7.0% to 628,000. That was the highest level of single-family starts since February.

Building permits declined 3.8% from July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 918,000 (consensus 943,000). That disappointment notwithstanding, the housing starts report carried positive implications for Q3 GDP as the number of units under construction increased 2.2% to 654,000.

Among major stocks under focus, Oracle shares erased losses to end nearly 0.1% higher after the business-software provider missed sales forecasts and gave a disappointing outlook. Apple stock rose more than 1.6% thereby supporting the Nasdaq. Rite Aid jumped more than 23% after the drugstore chain raised its profit forecast.

Crude-oil prices ended lower on Thursday, 19 September 2013 at Nymex. Crude oil fell as traders mulled about Federal Reserve's policy decision as well as pressure from easing Middle East supply concerns. Prices drop despite upbeat US economic data. Crude oil for October delivery fell $1.68 or 1.6%, to settle at $106.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bullion metal prices ended higher on Thursday, 19 September 2013 at Comex. Gold for December delivery ended higher by $61.7 (4.7%) at $1,369.3 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. December silver rose $1.73 or 8% to $23.29 an ounce on Comex on Thursday.

For every two stocks rising, roughly three fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 738 million shares traded. Composite volume hit 3.7 billion.

Indian ADRs ended mostly lower on Thursday. In the IT space, Infosys was down 1% and Wipro was down 0.8%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was down 1.9% and ICICI Bank was down 2.2%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 0.8% and Dr Reddys was down 0.6%.

Tomorrow, there is no economic data scheduled for the day.

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