Energy and industrials paced sector gains
US stocks ended moderately higher on Thursday, 22 August 2013. The major averages registered gains across the board, but a three-hour halt of all Nasdaq-listed issues prevented normal trading from taking place throughout the afternoon. Stocks climbed out of the gate after upbeat survey data from China and the eurozone reassured investors.
Snapping a six-session bout of losses, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher, rising 66.19 points, or 0.4%, to 14,963.74. The S&P 500 index closed up 14.16 points, or 0.9%, at 1,656.96. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 38.92 points, or 1.1%, at 3,638.71.
Energy and industrials paced sector gains on a sectoral basis. Technology sector was the worst performer.
In the tech sector, Apple ended little changed and Dow member Hewlett-Packard endured its worst session in two years, falling 12.5%, after reporting in-line results and saying it is unlikely to experience revenue growth in 2014.
Speaking of technology, the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell victim to an early-afternoon glitch that kept all member shares from trading for three full hours. The impact could be felt across other indices as they drifted inside narrow ranges on thin volume.
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Chinese manufacturing data Thursday showed improvement from the prior month. The HSBC purchasing managers index rose to 50.1 in August from 47.7 in July. A reading over 50.0 suggests economic growth. The China data was a bullish factor for the precious metals markets on Thursday. China is the world's second-largest economy, but the leading worldwide importer of many key raw commodities. The China data somewhat assuaged the Asian markets, but the concerns of an Asian contagion outweighed the positive China data.
Investors received a handful of economic data today at Wall Street. The initial claims level rose to 336,000 for the week ending August 17 from an upwardly revised 323,000 (from 320,000) for the week ending August 10. The consensus expected the initial claims level to increase to 337,000. The upward move in the initial claims level is likely just normal volatility. Over the past four weeks, moving average for initial claims has dropped to its lowest level since November 2007.
Separately, the Conference Board's Index of Leading Indicators increased 0.6% in July after holding flat in June. That was the strongest increase since increasing 0.8% in April. The consensus expected the index to increase 0.5%.
Lastly, the June FHFA Housing Price Index rose 0.7% to follow last month's 0.8% increase.
Crude-oil futures climbed on Thursday, 22 August 2013 to reclaim the $105-a-barrel level as better-than-expected manufacturing data from major oil consumer China brightened the outlook for energy demand.
October crude oil added $1.18, or 1.1%, to settle at $105.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. Oct crude oil lifted off its session low of $103.80 per barrel moments after equities markets opened. It touched a session high of $105.18 per barrel.
Bullion metal prices ended higher on Thursday, 22 August 2013. December gold and Sep silver rose to their respective session highs of $1381.40 and $23.33 per ounce after data released this morning showed the initial claims level rose to 336,000 for the week ending 17 August from an upwardly revised 323,000 for the week ending Aug 10. However, both metals pulled-back as they headed into afternoon floor trade.
Gold settled just 60 cents higher at $1370.60 per ounce while silver closed at $23.03 per ounce, booking a 0.3% gain.
For every share declining, roughly five gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 573 million shares traded by the close. Composite volume was around 2.5 billion, hampered by low volume on all exchanges due to the Nasdaq-listed-stock halt. For total composite volume, it was the lowest full-day volume of the year.
Tomorrow's economic data will be limited to July new home sales with the report set to be released at 10:00 ET.
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