US stocks ended with strong losses on Monday, 15 April 2013. Weak economic data at home and from China unnerved investors and shook sentiments from the very start of the day. Data pointing to a China slowdown and less optimism among home builders at Wall Street sapped momentum in today's trading. The key indices were hovering near their lows when reports indicated two explosions took place at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Sellers reacted to the news by pushing equities to fresh lows.
For the day, the Dow ended lower by 265.86 points (1.8%) at 14,599.2. Nasdaq ended lower by 78.46 points (2.4%) at 3,216.5. S&P 500 ended lower by 36.49 points (2.3%) at 1,552.36.
Energy, materials and industrial sectors led the decliners among the ten economic sectors. All thirty Dow components ended lower led by Caterpillar, GE and Exxon Mobil.
Overnight, China reported its economy grew slower than expected during the first quarter, at 7.7% versus the expected rate of 8% annual growth. Also, among the data from China on Monday, March industrial production increased 8.9% from the year-earlier period, missing the forecast for a 10% gain. The growth was the weakest in more than a year, slowing from a 9.9% average rise for the January-February period.
There are also worries about troubled European Union countries selling their gold reserves to help finance their financial bailouts from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Cyprus government officials last week said selling part of that financially imperiled country's gold reserves was on the table. Last week's Federal Reserve FOMC meeting that signaled Fed members are divided on when to end the Fed's quantitative easing of monetary policy also spooked the raw commodity market bulls.
In the currency market, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, remained steady on Monday.
At Wall Street, domestic economic news did little to paint an upbeat picture. The Empire Manufacturing Survey for April registered a reading of 3.1, which was down from the prior month's reading of 9.2. Market had expected that the survey would slip to 5.0.
Meanwhile, the April NAHB Housing Market Index registered a reading of 42, which was lower from the prior month's print of 44. Today's reading fell also short of the consensus which called for a reading of 45.
In the M&A area, shares of Sprint Nextel jumped 14%, after Dish Network said it would offer $25.5 billion for Sprint, in a bid to derail an acquisition for the group by Softbank of Japan.
Bullion metal prices plunged on Monday, 15 April 2013. Prices of gold and silver prices careened lower on massive panic selling pressure on Monday that drove both market to more-than-two-year lows. Gold futures on Monday suffered their biggest one-day decline since the 1980s, as the metal extended its dive into a second straight session and pushed further into bear-market territory. The broader metals complex also dropped, with silver down 11% for its lowest settlement in more than two years after disappointing Chinese data fed worries over industrial metals demand.
Gold for June delivery ended lower by $140.3 (9.3%) at $1,361.1 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday. It fell to a low of $1,355.4 during intra day trading. May silver ended lower by $2.97 cents (11%) at $23.36 an ounce on Monday.
Crude-oil prices ended substantially lower on Monday, 15 April 2013 at Nymex. Prices fell in tandem with other raw commodities despite a steady dollar. Weaker than expected economic data from China pushed crude prices extremely lower for the day. Light and sweet crude for May fell by $2.58 or 2.8% to settle at $88.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.
Volume in New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks was 4.6 billion, the largest day in a month, and topping the year-to-date average of 3.5 billion. Total market volume was the largest this year, according to the Wall Street Journal's data group.
Indian ADRs ended lower on Monday. In the IT space, Infosys was down 3.2% and Wipro was down 2.9%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was down 0.7% and ICICI Bank was down 1%. In the Telecom space, Tata Communication was down 3.5%. In other space, Tata Motors was down 4.8%, Dr Reddys was down 2.5% and Sterlite was down 6.2%.
Tomorrow, March CPI, core CPI, housing starts, and building permits will all be reported at 8:30 ET. In addition, March industrial production and capacity utilization will both be announced at 9:15 ET. On the earnings front, Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs are scheduled to report their quarterly results prior to the opening bell.
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