US stocks end with moderate losses

For the day, the Dow ended lower by 50.92 points (0.4%) at 13,384.29. Nasdaq ended lower by 2.85 points (0.09%) at 3,098.81. S&P 500 ended lower by 4.58 points (0.31%) at 1,461.89.

Among the ten economic sectors, utilities and energy led the declines and health care and telecommunications fared best among its 10 major sectors. Among the thirty Dow components, Walt Disney and Boeing featured among the top decliners in the 30-component benchmark. Intel was one of the gainers in the Dow, after Lazard Capital Markets upgraded the chip maker.

The financial sector was underperforming the broader market. The Federal Reserve has recently announced that as a result of the Independent Foreclosure Review, ten major banks will be required to provide $3.3 billion in payments and $5.2 billion in other assistance to affected homeowners. The settlement comes after banks engaged in deficient practices in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing.

Also of note, Bank of America announced it has reached a settlement with Fannie Mae to resolve agency mortgage repurchase claims on loans originated and sold directly to Fannie Mae through December 31, 2008. The settlement is expected to reduce Bank of America's fourth quarter pretax income by about $2.7 billion.

The technology sector was off after recovering off its morning lows. Among the notable gainers, 3D Systems was firmer by 4.3% as the stock of the 3-D printing company trades at a fresh all-time high. Earlier, the company announced the launch of a new printer, which will be on display at the CES conference taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Among major stocks under focus, Walgreen added 2.2% after Jefferies Group Inc. hiked its rating of the drugstore chain to buy from hold. Yahoo declined 2.3% after Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. downgraded shares of the search engine. Amazon.com gained 2.7% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the online retailer.

Investors continued to weigh Fed's latest FOMC minutes. The minutes of the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee were released on last Thursday afternoon and they somewhat surprisingly revealed some FOMC members believe that quantitative easing of U.S. monetary policy should be wound down during 2013. That spooked the precious metals market bulls and gave the U.S. dollar index another boost higher.

In the currency market, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies fell by 0.2% on Monday. The U.S. dollar index dropped from its earlier higher levels to trade below on Monday. The index last Friday hit a four-week high, in the wake of the greenback-bullish FOMC minutes issued last week.

The impact of last week's temporary U.S. fiscal cliff agreement by U.S. lawmakers has quickly faded. The market place is now looking forward with trepidation to the upcoming negotiations between the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration on budget and spending matters. Such is likely to limit trader and investor participation in many markets in the coming weeks.

Crude oil prices ended little higher on Monday, 07 January 2013 at Nymex.

Prices ended little higher with the market considering a potential rebound in U.S. crude supplies and awaiting oil-demand cues as the corporate-earnings season kicks off this week. The EIA is also scheduled to release its monthly short-term energy outlook report Tuesday and traders are waiting for the same. On Monday, light and sweet crude oil futures for light sweet crude for February delivery closed higher by $0.10 (0.1%) at $93.19/barrel. For 2012, oil futures fell 7.1%, their first yearly decline since 2008, when markets were rocked by the global financial crisis.

Bullion metals at Comex finished mixed on Monday, 07 January 2013. Comex gold futures prices ended lower while silver climbed up. Gold prices slipped despite dollar erasing earlier gains. Gold for February delivery fell $2.6 (0.2%) to settle at $1,646.3 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. Gold futures have tallied a loss of $42.50 an ounce, or 2.5%, over three trading sessions. On Monday, March silver rose $0.14, or 0.5% to settle at $30.08 an ounce. Silver finished 8.3% higher for the year 2012.

More than 625 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Composite volume exceeded 3.27 billion.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Monday. In the Banking space, ICICI Bank was down 0.3% and HDFC Bank was down 0.8%. In the IT space, Infosys was up 1.4% and Wipro was up 0.7%. In the Telecom space, MTNL was down 5.9% and Tata Communication was down 2.2%. In the other space, Sterlite was down 0.3%, Tata Motors was down 0.1%. Dr Reddys was down 0.3%.

For tomorrow, no economic data is expected for the day. Earning reports will start to pour in from tomorrow.

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