US stocks manage to pare earlier losses and close in a mixed mode

For the day, that ended on Wednesday, 21 December 2011, Dow ended higher by 4.2 points, or 0.03% to end at 12,107.74. The Nasdaq lost 25.76 points or 0.99% to end at 2577.97. The S&P 500 gained 2.42 points (0.19%) to end at 1,243.72. Dow was trading lower by almost 103 points earlier during the day.

Nine out of ten economic sectors ended higher led by utilities, energy, consumer staples and healthcare sectors. The technology sector ended as the sole laggard.

Stocks fell earlier despite after the European Central Bank said it would lend a record amount to euro-area banks. In Europe, hope that came with the ECB's loan plan faded on worries that it would not increase lending between banks nor reduce the huge debt burdens of European governments. The ECB loaned 489 billion euros, or $639 billion, to 523 banks for three years, the biggest such injection into the banking system in the 13-year history of the region's shared currency.

 

Leadership was never clear, but energy stocks helped provide a broad market lift in afternoon trade. In addition, stocks like Bank of America and Yahoo helped market rebound.

Disappointing quarter results from Oracle weighed on overall technology sector. The business software provider late Tuesday underlined concern that big business and government bodies were cutting back on technology expenditures.

Also on Wednesday, NAR reported that existing-home sales rose 4% in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million, compared with 4.25 million in the prior month. Sales are up 12.2% from the prior year.

Late in the session, the Justice Department announced a $335 million settlement with Bank of America over alleged discriminatory lending practices by its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit, putting an end to one legal issue hanging over the company. Bank of America shares climbed up by almost 2%.

Also, as per latest reports, Yahoo is discussing a plan to cut its stake in Alibaba Group Holding to about 15% from 40% as part of a tax-free transaction valued at between $17 billion and $18 billion. Yahoo shares ended almost 6% higher.

A better-than-expected bottom line and a solid future orders increase gave shares of Nike strong gains today.

Crude prices ended higher for third straight day on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 at Nymex. Prices rose as energy department reported a bigger than expected drop in crude stockpiles for last week in its latest weekly inventory report. Light and sweet crude for February delivery rose $1.43 (1.5%) to $98.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday.

In the latest weekly inventory report, EIA reported a drop of 10.6 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended 16 December 2011. As per the report, motor gasoline supplies also fell last week, off 400,000 barrels, while distillate stocks declined by 2.4 barrels. Market expected data to show that crude-oil stocks fell by 2.25 million barrels. They had also forecast a rise of 1.75 million-barrel in gasoline supplies and a decline of 600,000 barrels in distillate inventories.

In the currency market on Wednesday, the Dollar Index, which weighs the strength of dollar against basket of six other currencies rose by almost 0.3%. The Euro currency backed well down from its daily high while the U.S. dollar index moved well off its daily low.

Precious metals ended lower on Wednesday, 21 December 2011 at Comex. Prices ended the U.S. day session slightly lower in uneventful trading on Wednesday. The yellow metal did back well off the early session high as the U.S. dollar index moved up from its low and U.S. stock indices weakened. Gold for February delivery ended lower by $4 or 0.3%, to end at $1,613.6 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday. On Wednesday, silver prices for March delivery fell $0.29 or 1% to end at $29.25. Last week, silver lost 8%.

Advancers nearly doubled decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where 824 million shares traded hands.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Wednesday. In the IT space, Patni ended up 0.6% $ 16.57, Infosys ended down 4.1% at $49.35. In the Banking space, ICICI Bank ended up 2.7% at $25.92 and HDFC Bank ended up 1.2% at $25.93. In the other space, Sterlite ended up 2.34% at $7, Dr Reddy's ended up 0.7% at $29.77 and Tata Motors ended down 0.24% at $16.57.

For tomorrow, initial claims, continuing claims and third estimate of last quarter GDP are the economic reports expected. Other than that, couple of earning reports will also flow in.

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