Losses cumulate at Wall Street

For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by 132.86 points at 10308.26. Nasdaq ended lower by 26.86 points at 2180.05. S&P 500 ended lower by 13.1 points at 1096.08. Dow was up by almost 35 points earlier during the day.

All the ten economic sectors ended lower for the day led by the materials and financial sectors.

In the currency market on Thursday, the U.S. dollar rallied to its highest level in more than three months, supported by a rush to safety spurred by concerns about Greece's debt payments and a reassessment of when the Federal Reserve could begin to tighten U.S. monetary policy. The dollar index, which weighs the strength of dollar against the basket of six other currencies rose by almost 1%.

 

US stocks also reacted negatively to the news of FedEx tumbling more than 6%. The package-delivery giant's fiscal second-quarter earnings fell 30% as lower fuel surcharges led to declining revenue, outweighing improved ground-shipping volumes and cost cuts. The company also forecast third-quarter earnings below expectations.

Among economic reports expected for the day, The Labor Department in US reported on Thursday, 17 December, 2009 that the number of people filing for state unemployment benefits rose for a second straight week.

The report stated that the number of initial claims in the week ended 12 December, 2009 increased to 480,000, up 7,000 from the prior week. Market was expecting a claims to fall to 465,000.

The four-week average of new claims fell 5,250 to 467,500. This was the 15th straight weekly decline. As for continuing claims, they inched higher by 5,000 to stand at 5.19 million in the latest week.

Bullion metal prices registered sharp fall on Thursday, 17 December, 2009. Prices fell drastically as the dollar shot up to threw month high levels as traders mulled over the fact that Fed will take steps to boost the slipping dollar in current times. On Thursday, gold for February delivery ended at $1,107.4 an ounce, lower by $28.8 (2.5%) an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Last week, gold shed 4.2%.

Crude prices ended lower on Thursday, 17 December, 2009. Prices fell as the dollar shot up to threw month high levels as traders mulled over the fact that Fed will take steps to boost the slipping dollar in current times. But natural gas prices registered sharp rise due to the cold front that has hit parts of US in recent times.

On Thursday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $72.64/barrel (lower by $0.02 or 0.2%). It fell to a low of $71.13 earlier during the day. Last week, crude ended lower by 7.4%.

Indian ADRs ended mixed today. The banking ADRs witnessed the largest losses with HDFC bank declining 4.1% and ICICI bank shedding 2.6% respectively. Rediff.com and Wipro Technologies were the largest gainers soaring 3.5% and 2.9% respectively.

Tomorrow, no economic data or earning reports are expected.

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