Rally led by consumer discretionary, materials and health-care sectors
U.S. stocks rallied into the close on Wednesday, 30 September 2015 driven by gains in consumer discretionary, materials and health-care sectors. But the main indexes still ended the month and a quarter with steep losses. Trading on Wall Street was volatile while volumes were thinner than usual, with some of market watchers questioning the strength of the rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished capped the session with a rare third consecutive quarterly decline, while the S&P 500 booked losses for the second straight quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 235.57 points, or 1.5%, to close at 16,284.70. The Dow declined 1.5% over the month and 7.6% over the quarter. Meanwhile, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 102 points, or 2.3%, to finish at 4,620.16, its biggest one-day gain in three weeks. The S&P 500 gained 35.94 points, or 1.9%, to 1,920.03.
Nearly all of the Dow components finished higher, with the exception of Procter & Gamble and Verizon Communications. All ten sectors finished the day with gains, paced by a 2.7% spike in the consumer discretionary space.
Wednesday's gains were fueled by a spike in health-care stocks, specifically in biotechnology companies, that have been beaten down over the past few weeks. Consumer discretionary, technology, energy and material also rallied more than 2%.
The Wednesday session marked the end of the third quarter, during which the S&P 500 fell 6.9% versus a 7.4% decline in the Nasdaq.
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Equity indices began the trading day with solid gains after index futures rallied alongside markets in Europe.
On the earnings front, Barracuda Networks plunged 33.8% after cautious guidance overshadowed a one-cent beat.
Bullion prices registered a fourth straight day of losses on Wednesday, 30 September 2015 at Comex, settling at their lowest level in more than two weeks, as a climb in the U.S. stock market and strength in the dollar dulled the metal's investment appeal on Wednesday.
The session's decline contributed to the metal's losses for the month, quarter and year. December gold settled at $1,115.20 an ounce on Comex, down $11.60, or 1%, for the session. Based on the most-active contracts, prices lost 1.5% for the month and 4.8% for the quarter. Year to date, gold is down 5.8%. December silver lost 5.5 cents, or 0.4%, to $14.518 an ounce. Prices, based on the most-active contracts, saw a 6.8% quarterly decline and a 0.5% monthly decline in September. Year to date, they were down 6.9%.
A reading showing that U.S. companies added a better-than-expected 200,000 private-sector jobs in September, according to payroll processor ADP, helped the metal extend its losses early in the session. Upbeat economic data may boost prospects that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year, which in turn could provide support for the U.S. Higher rates can be a drag on gold, which doesn't bear interest, and a stronger greenback can dull demand for dollar-denominated commodities.
Crude Oil futures tallied a loss of 24% for the third quarter, after ending Wednesday, 30 September 2015 lower on the back of a report revealing the first U.S. crude-supply increase in three weeks. The report also showed a modest decline in domestic production, helping prices limit losses for the session.
November West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $45.09 a barrel, down 14 cents, or 0.3%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, trading between a high of $45.85 and a low of $44.68. WTI prices, based the front-month contracts, lost 8.4% for the month and were 24% lower for the quarter. Year to date, they're down by more than 15%.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday an increase of four million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended Sept. 25. That was the first climb in three weeks. Market had expected supplies to be unchanged. Gasoline supplies rose 3.3 million barrels while distillate stockpiles fell 300,000 barrels last week. Market had expected gasoline stockpiles to be down 500,000 barrels and distillate inventories, which include heating oil, to show a decline of 1.2 million barrels.
Among other economic data, the weekly MBA Mortgage Index fell 6.7% to follow last week's 13.9% spike. The Chicago PMI dropped to 48.7 in September from 54.4 in August while the consensus expected a decline to 52.9. The Production Index dropped to 43.6 from 59.0 in August, representing the lowest reading since July 2009 and the biggest one-month decline since February
Treasuries slumped overnight, but they began rallying with the move continuing into the afternoon. As a result, the 10-yr note reclaimed its overnight loss with the benchmark yield ending flat at 2.05%.
Today's participation was well above average as more than a billion shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Tomorrow, weekly Initial Claims (consensus 270K) will be released at 8:30 ET while August Construction Spending (consensus 0.5%) and September ISM Index (consensus 50.6) will both be reported at 10:00 ET.
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