US stocks ended with big gains at Wall Street on Thursday, 11 July 2013. U.S. stocks registered the bulk of their advance at the open after yesterday's comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke created some push back against the idea the Fed may begin slowing the pace of its asset purchases at the September meeting. Stocks stuck to their gains after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would remain accommodative.
For the day, the Dow rallied 169.26 points, or 1.1%, to 15,460.92. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 57.55 points, or 1.6%, to 3,578.30. The S&P 500 index gained 22.4 points, or 1.4%, to 1,675.02.
All of the thirty Dow components ended higher led by Intel.
In the tech sector, Microsoft shares rose 2.8% on the technology giant's reorganization plan, outlined in an email by CEO Steve Ballmer to employees.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech on Wednesday after most U.S. markets were closed said the U.S. central bank still needs to be very accommodative in its monetary policy for economic growth to continue, and that the Fed will not raise interest rates for some time to come. Bernanke's remarks, along with the FOMC minutes, released Wednesday afternoon, showing a deep split between members on when to start to wind down the Fed's monthly bond-buying program (quantitative easing) has at least temporarily changed the market place's notions of when QE will begin to be scaled back.
The past few months have seen Bernanke's remarks and other Fed data roil the market place, and Wednesday's Fed events did not disappoint. The U.S. dollar index dropped sharply on the Fed news, while gold and U.S. Treasury bond and notes futures prices shot higher. Other commodity markets also saw buying support on the Fed news. The easy money policies of the Federal Reserve and other major central banks of the world the past few years have been a major bullish factor for the bond and raw commodity markets.
The U.S. dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 2% on Thursday.
Among economic data expected at Wall Street today, the initial claims level rose from an upwardly revised 344,000 (from 343,000) for the week ending June 29 to 360,000 for the week ending July 6. The consensus expected the initial claims level to increase to 345,000. The Department of Labor reported that seasonal adjustment biases from the July 4 holiday may have played a role in the unexpected jump in claims. If this is true, then the initial claims level should fall back below 350,000 next week.
Separately, export prices, excluding agriculture, decreased by 0.2% in June after they had decreased 0.7% during the prior month. Excluding oil, import prices declined 0.3%, which follows last month's decline of 0.3%.
Bullion metal prices ended sharply higher on Thursday, 11 July 2013 at Comex. Gold prices hit a two-week high near $1,300.00. The precious metals and the rest of the market place got some bullish news from the latest Fed speak that also pushed the U.S. dollar index sharply lower.
Gold for August delivery ended higher by $32.5 (2.6%) at $1,279.9 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. September silver ended higher by $0.79 (4.1%) at $19.96 an ounce on Thursday.
Crude-oil prices ended lower on Thursday, 11 July 2013 at Nymex. Prices dropped after International Energy Agency forecast a rise in oil supply from non-OPEC countries this year and next that will likely outpace demand growth. Light and sweet crude for August ended lower by $1.61 (1.5%) at $104.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.
For every share falling, more than six gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where nearly 742 million shares traded. Composite volume exceeded 3.4 billion shares.
Indian ADRs ended higher on Thursday. In the IT space, Infosys was up 3.4% and Wipro was up 2.5%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was up 4.9% and ICICI Bank was up 5.3%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 1.8%, and Sterlite was up 5.3%.
Tomorrow, June PPI and core PPI will be reported at 8:30 ET while the preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey for July will be released at 9:55 ET.
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