US stocks kick off new week with modest gains

Twenty two of thirty Dow components end higher led by Pfizer

U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, 14 October 2013 with the Dow industrials and S&P 500 extending gains into a fourth session, as lawmakers appeared to be inching towards an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, three days before U.S. borrowing authority is set to expire. Once again, equity indices posted modest gains even as the agreement to end the partial government shutdown and extend the debt ceiling remained elusive.

After a 101-point drop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended with a gain of 64.15 points, or 0.4%, at 15,301.26. The Nasdaq Composite index rose 23.40 points, or 0.6%, to 3,815.27. The S&P 500 index added 6.94 points, or 0.4%, to 1,710.14.

Pfizer led gains that included 22 of its 30 components. Health care and energy were the best performing and telecommunications and utilities led the laggards of the 10 major sectors.

Stocks slumped at the open after the weekend ended without any concrete progress in Washington. Despite the opening weakness, dip-buyers were quick to step in, drawing encouragement from late-morning reports indicating a bipartisan meeting was scheduled to take place at the White House at 15:00 ET.

The rebound continued into the afternoon with upbeat quotes from lawmakers providing additional support.

The U.S. stock indexes were seeing selling pressure early Monday as the U.S. Congress and President Obama over the weekend made little to no progress on reopening the government and agreeing on a measure to extend the government debt ceiling. The U.S. government has been closed for two weeks and late this week it's likely the U.S. will reach its debt ceiling. There were no U.S. economic data released Monday, which is the U.S. Columbus Day holiday. The U.S. Treasury markets were closed on Monday.

On the upside, the technology sector fueled much of the session-long rebound as top components rallied. Apple, Google, and Microsoft settled with gains between 0.5% and 0.9%. Netflix surged 7.8% after reports indicated the company is exploring making its service available through cable set-top boxes. In addition, the company said it entered into a production deal with Sony.

Bullion metal prices ended higher on Monday, 14 October 2013. Gold futures rebounded on Monday from a three-month low, but closed off the session's highs as news that U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders helped to dull some of the yellow metal's investment appeal.

December gold gained $8.40, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,276.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had topped $1,290 in electronic trading overnight. Silver futures were also on the rise, with the December contract up 9.5 cents, or 0.5%, at $21.35 an ounce, following highs above $21.60.

Crude oil futures settled a bit higher on Monday, 14 October 2013 at Nymex. Prices rose to reclaim $102-a-barrel level as news that President Barack Obama was going to meet with congressional leaders raised the likelihood of a debt-ceiling deal. Chinese trade data also impacted prices.

Crude oil for November delivery tacked on 39 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $102.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after touching lows near $101.

Economic data released from China over the weekend and Monday showed its consumer price index rose to 3.1% on an annual basis versus a 2.6% rise in August. The CPI rise was a bit hotter than expected by the market place. In other economic data from China, new car sales rose in September at the fastest rate in eight months. China's trade surplus narrowed to $15.2 billion in September from $28.5 billion in August. The overall take of the market place on this latest batch of China economic data is that it was generally weaker than expected.

For every two shares on the decline, roughly three gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 575 million shares traded. Composite volume approached 2.6 billion shares.

Tomorrow, the October Empire Manufacturing Survey will be released at 8:30 ET.

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