Financial sector was the hardest hit among the 10 major sectors
US stocks ended mostly in the red at Wall Street on Monday, 23 September 2013. as investors heard from Federal Reserve officials and worried about another standoff in Washington. Stocks spent the first half of the session in a steady retreat, but managed to regain a portion of their losses during afternoon action.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 49.71 points, or 0.3%, to 15,401.38. The Nasdaq Composite shed 9.44 points, or 0.3%, to 3,765.29. The S&P 500 index lost 8.07 points, or 0.5%, to 1,701.84.
The financial sector was the hardest hit among the 10 major sectors. Seven of ten sectors finished in the red while technology, telecom services and utilities outperformed.
The market place on Monday continued to reflect upon last week's surprise move by the U.S. Federal Reserve to not start to wind down its monthly bond-buying program.
Traders and investors are awaiting fresh clues from the Fed on its future monetary policy moves, especially the timing of such moves. There are several Federal Reserve officials speaking this week, including three on Monday, and their comments will be closely scrutinized by the market place.
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The commodity markets did slightly trim their losses on following new reports of the two Fed officials' remarks Monday morning. Also Monday there were a couple of U.S. economic reports that favored the weak side, which also somewhat limited selling pressure in the gold and silver markets.
German elections on Sunday saw Chancellor Angela Merkel win a third term, which was slightly bearish for gold as it suggested stability in the European Union's strongest economy. Also, the data provider Markit on Monday said its monthly gauge of business activity in the European Union rose in September to 52.1, the highest level in over two years. A reading above 50.0 suggests growth.
In China overnight, the HSBC manufacturing PMI rose to a six-month high of 51.2 in September, compared to a reading of 50.1 in August. This report continued a string of generally upbeat economic news coming out of the world's second-largest economy.
On the economic front at Wall Street today, the preliminary reading of Markit's flash manufacturing purchasing managers index slipped to 52.8 in September from 53.1 in August and declined for the second month in a row.
The technology sector and the Nasdaq received an opening boost from the shares of Apple after the largest sector component reported strong weekend demand for two of its latest devices. As a result of better-than-expected sales, the company said it expects fourth quarter revenue to come in near the top end of analyst estimates. Apple settled higher by 5.0% and component suppliers like Cirrus Logic and Skyworks Solutions also displayed strength.
But Google lost 1.8% and the newest Dow member Visa fell 1.3%. Just like Visa, the other two new Dow additions, Goldman Sachs and Nike ended in the red.
Goldman Sachs settled behind the remaining Dow components as the financial sector was the only group that ended with a loss larger than 1.0%. The broad weakness was brought on by a report indicating Citigroup is likely to record a significant drop in third quarter trading revenue.
Trading in BlackBerry shares was temporarily halted after the smartphone maker said Fairfax Financial was offering to acquire the company for $9 a share. Its shares closed at $8.82, up 1.1%.
Bullion metal prices ended lower on Monday, 23 September 2013 at Comex. Precious metals traded lower today, extending Friday's losses. Prices stretched losses from the previous session on indications that a reduction in U.S. monetary stimulus is still possible by the end of the year.
December gold brushed a session low of $1317.90 per ounce in morning action and settled with a 0.4% loss at $1327.30 per ounce. December silver chopped around slightly below the unchanged line after dipping to a session low of $21.67 per ounce. It eventually settled with a 0.2% loss at $21.87 per ounce.
Crude-oil prices ended lower on Monday, 23 September 2013 at Nymex. Oil futures closed below $104 a barrel on Monday, tallying a three session loss of about 4% as concerns over Middle Eastern supplies continued to ease, in part due to growing output from Libya. November crude oil dropped $1.16, or 1.1%, to settle at $103.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
For every three stocks rising, roughly four fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 690 million shares traded. Composite volume neared 3.1 billion.
Indian ADRs ended mixed on Monday. In the IT space, Infosys was up 1.2% and Wipro was up 1.8%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was down 0.6% and ICICI Bank was down 1.2%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 0.04% and Dr Reddys was up 1.05%.
Tomorrow, the economic reports will feature July Case-Shiller 20-city Index and July FHFA Housing Price Index which will both be reported at 9:00 ET while the September consumer confidence report will cross the wires at 10:00 ET.
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