Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Foreign Market

Tuesday, the US stock market closed sharply lower after the crude touched near $130 barrel mark fueled concern about the US economy. The financial sector acted as the major drag on the back of negative forecasts from two brokerages firms. AIG was also under selling pressure after the company said it will raise a total of $20 billion, up from its previous plan to raise $12.5 billion.

On the economic front, the total PPI came in better than expected, but core PPI was higher than estimates. The April Producer Price Index rose 0.2%, while core-PPI, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.4%. Economists expected the opposite, forecasting a 0.4% rise in PPI and a 0.2% rise in core-PPI.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped by 199.48 points to close at 12,828.68. The S&P 500 (SPX) index decreased by 13.23 points to close at 1,413.40 and the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) fell 23.83 points to close at 2,492.26.

Among the Dow’s 30 components, 28 components ended in the negative territory mainly led by the stocks like American Express, AIG and Citigroup down by 2.6%, 2.1% and 3.8% respectively.
A total of 0.8bn shares were traded on the NASDAQ, with declining stocks outpaced the advancing stocks by 17 to 11. On NYSE around 1.2bn shares traded for the day, with declining stocks outpaced the advancing stocks by 2 to 1.

Crude oil futures for the month of June delivery closed higher by $2.02 at $129.07 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. During the intraday trading the crude prices have touched a new record high of $129.60 per barrel after one of the hedge-fund manager Boone Pickens said prices will reach $150 a barrel this year due to the supply demand concern. Further the weakening of dollar against euro also added to the gains. The dollar fell after the International Monetary Fund said the U.S. housing slump still poses serious risks to financial markets.

The gold prices for the month of June delivery rose by $14.40 to settle at $920.20 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold prices closed above the $900 mark for the second straight day after it touched an intraday high of $923.80 an ounce. The gold prices increased mainly due to the sharp rally in the crude oil prices and also the weakening of dollar as against its rival currencies.

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