Stocks end lower on a weekly basis though
U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday, 04 October 2012 but closed mostly lower for the week, as investors stayed sensitive to news about the government shutdown. Equities climbed throughout the session while showing little concern over the lack of progress in the Capitol Hill stalemate. A brief afternoon hiccup ensued after House Speaker John Boehner made the headlines with his remarks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a gain of 76.10 points, or 0.5%, to 15,072.58 on Friday. It was the blue-chip index's best day in more than two weeks. For the week, however, the Dow fell 1.2%. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 33.41 points, or 0.9%, to 3,807.75. The tech-heavy index scored a weekly gain of 0.7%. The S&P 500 index closed up 11.84 points, or 0.7%, to 1,690.50. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.1%.
Materials and health care performed best among S&P 500 sectors, while consumer staples and utilities were laggards. Walt Disney and Boeing showed the largest gains among Dow components, rising 2% and 1.7%, respectively.
With the government shutdown, the market didn't get its monthly U.S. jobs report. So it will be virtually impossible for the Federal Reserve to taper its bond-buying program at the next meeting later this month.
The U.S. government largely has been shut down for four days after Congress failed to pass a spending bill for the new federal fiscal year, which began last Tuesday.
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Though logic would suggest that a shutdown would generate safe-haven bids for the commodities, the closure suggests that the Federal Reserve may not decide to taper its bond-buying program at its next meeting later this month.
Among major stocks under focus, Facebook rose nearly 4% after announcing plans for ads on its Instagram service and as rival social network Twitter disclosed financial details related to its IPO. In other IPO news, shares in sandwich chain Potbelly Corp. surged in their debut on the Nasdaq on Friday, more than doubling.
In the currency market on Friday, the dollar index rose by 0.5%.
Bullion metals closed lower on Friday, 04 October 2013. Gold prices closed lower on Friday, held down by dollar strength to lose more than 2% for the week after having been batted around by the U.S. government shutdown and debt-ceiling worries.
Gold futures for December delivery fell $7.70, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,309.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange after having touched a high of $1,326 in electronic trading. The contract lost 2.2% for the week. December silver fell 3 cents, or 0.2%, to $21.75 an ounce to lose 0.4% for the week.
Crude-oil futures closed higher on Friday, 04 October 2013 adding to a weekly gain as energy companies evacuated oil and natural-gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico in preparation for a possible hurricane, raising concerns over energy supplies.
Crude oil for November delivery added 53 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $103.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices saw a gain of 0.9% for the week.
Treasuries spent the session in a steady retreat as the benchmark 10-yr yield increased four basis points to 2.65%
Trading volume was well below average as 597 million shares changed hands on the floor of the NYSE.
On Monday, the August Consumer Credit report will be released at 15:00 ET.
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