Healthcare remained the worst performing sector
US stocks ended mostly in the red once again at Wall Street on Wednesday, 25 September 2013. Stocks fell for fifth straights ession as uncertainty surrounding the U.S. budget and debt ceiling unnerved investors once again.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 61.33 points, or 0.4%, at 15,273.26. The S&P 500 also fell for a fifth session, closing down 4.65 points, or 0.3%, to 1,692.77. The Nasdaq Composite lost 7.16 points, or 0.2%, to 3,761.10.
The health care lost the most and financials was the best performing sector among its 10 major industry groups.
Wal-Mart Stores paced blue-chip losses, its shares off 1.5% after reported the discount retailer was reducing orders with suppliers this quarter and next to deal with climbing inventories.
U.S. economic data Wednesday was slightly on the stronger side of expectations, with the advance report on durable goods up slightly, and new residential home sales at a multi-month high. Treasuries saw steady demand throughout the session, and the benchmark 10-yr yield fell four basis points to 2.62%.
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The U.S. budget and debt ceiling issues are looming and will be debated by the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration the next few weeks. This will become a front-burner matter for the market place, and one that could be significantly bearish for most markets, as there is already talk the U.S. government could shut down for a short time.
On the economic front at Wall Street today, durable orders increased 0.1% after declining a downwardly revised 8.1% in July. The consensus estimate called for a 0.5% increase. Excluding transportation, durable orders declined 0.1% (+0.9% consensus) following an upwardly revised decline of 0.5% for July. Notwithstanding the headline disappointment, there were some encouraging elements to the report like the 0.9% increase in new orders for machinery, the 2.4% jump in new orders for motor vehicles and parts, and positive business investment data.
New home sales managed a modest rebound in August. Sales rose from a downwardly revised 390,000 in July to 421,000 in August. The consensus expected new home sales to increase to 415,000. Even after the uptick, sales were at their second lowest level since December 2012. Separately, the MBA Mortgage Index rose 5.5%, posting its second consecutive increase.
Advancers remained just ahead of decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where 641 million shares traded. Composite volume approached 3.2 billion.
Crude-oil prices ended lower on Wednesday, 25 September 2013 at Nymex. Oil futures logged a fifth straight session of losses after a weekly report showed a surprise climb in U.S. crude supplies. November crude oil dropped fell 47 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $102.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In the latest weekly inventory report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that crude stockpiles for the week ended Sept. 20 rose 2.6 million barrels. Market was looking for a decline of 1.5 million barrels. The report also showed that gasoline supplies rose by 200,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles were down 200,000 barrels. Gasoline stockpiles were expected to fall 1.5 million barrels, while forecasts called for a decline of 1 million barrels for distillates.
Bullion metal prices ended higher for first time in four sessions on Wednesday, 25 September 2013 at Comex. Prices put on a late-morning surge and held those gains into the close Wednesday, to finish solidly higher in the day. Uncertainty surrounding the U.S. budget and debt ceiling lured some investors back to the precious metal.
December gold ended higher by $19.9 (1.9%) at $1336.2 per ounce in morning action on Wednesday. December silver ended higher by 30 cents or 1.3% of $21.89 per ounce.
Indian ADRs ended mixed on Wednesday. In the IT space, Infosys was up 0.5% and Wipro was up 0.4%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was down 3.2% and ICICI Bank was down 2.3%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 1.4% and Dr Reddys was up 2.1%.
Tomorrow, weekly initial claims and the third estimate of second quarter GDP will be reported at 8:30 ET while August pending home sales will be announced at 10:00 ET.
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