US stocks ended with moderate gains on Thursday, 30 May 2013 at Wall Street. Stocks settled with modest gains as late afternoon selling took hold following a headline from Nikkei news, indicating Japan plans to impose new foreign exchange margin trading rules. The news caused dollar/yen to slip into the red while also weighing on equities. But a positive housing report at Wall Street helped indices end in the green.
For the day, the Dow ended higher by 21.73 points (0.14%) at 15,324.53. Nasdaq ended higher by 23.78 points (0.7%) at 3,491.3. S&P 500 ended higher by 6.05 points (0.4%) at 1,654.41.
Six of ten sectors ended in the black as financials and technology paced the broad market gains. 17 of 30 Dow components ended higher for the day.
Most major financials saw gains as Morgan Stanley climbed 3.4% to outperform its peers. Elsewhere, technology shares received support from major components like Apple and Microsoft as well as high-beta chipmakers.
Dow member Alcoa fell 1.1% after Moody's Investors Service reduced its rating on the aluminum manufacturer's debt to one notch below investment grade.
In the currency market, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.3%.
Thursday's batch of U.S. economic data was generally weak, highlighted by the weekly jobless claims report that showed more claims than expected and the second-quarter gross domestic product reading that was just on the weak side. Pending U.S. home sales also did not meet expectations.
Regarding economic data expected at Wall Street, initial claims for the week ending 25 May jumped by 10,000 to 354,000. The consensus had expected the claims level to be 340,000. That bumped up the four-week moving average by 6,750 to 347,250.
The second estimate of first quarter GDP produced a small downward revision to 2.4% from 2.5% (consensus +2.5%) while the GDP deflator slipped to 1.1% from 1.2% (consensus +1.2%). The upshot of the revision was that personal consumption expenditures growth was revised higher to 3.4% from 3.2%. That was the highest growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2010 and it boosted the PCE contribution to GDP growth to 2.4 percentage points from 2.2 percentage points at the first estimate. Increases in private inventory investment, exports, and imports were less than previously estimated. The lower contribution from the change in private inventories and nonresidential structures were offsetting factors to the uptick in the PCE contribution.
Lastly, pending home sales for April rose 0.3%, which was worse than the 1.5% increase forecast by the consensus. Today's reading follows last month's rise of 1.5%.
Crude-oil prices ended moderately higher on Thursday, 30 May 2013 at Nymex. Prices rose following a weak dollar. But the rise in price was checked following large pile up in crude stockpiles for last week and weaker than expected economic data at Wall Street. Light and sweet crude for July ended higher by $0.48 (0.5%) at $93.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday.
In the latest weekly inventory report, the EIA reported that U.S. crude-oil supplies rose 3 million barrels for the week ended 24 May to 397.6 million barrels. That's their highest level since the EIA began collecting data in 1978. The increase was unexpected as market was looking for a 1.5 million-barrel decline. Gasoline supplies fell 1.5 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 1.9 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles were expected to fall by 800,000 barrels, while forecasts called for a decline of 600,000 barrels for distillates.
Bullion metal prices ended at their highest levels in two weeks on Thursday, 30 May 2013. Prices rose following weaker dollar, disappointing U.S. economic data and strong physical demand in Asia, which combined to lift prices above $1,400 an ounce. Gold for August delivery ended higher by $20.20 (1.5%) at $1,412 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday. July silver ended higher by $0.24 cents (1.1%) at $22.69 an ounce on Thursday.
For every two stocks on the decline, roughly three gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 710 million shares traded. Composite volume neared 3.5 billion.
Indian ADRs ended mixed on Thursday. In the IT space, Infosys was up 0.6% and Wipro was down 1.1%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was up 0.9% and ICICI Bank was up 0.1%. In the Telecom space, Tata Communication was down 3.5%. In other space, Tata Motors gained 1.2%, Dr Reddys was down 1.3% and Sterlite was down 2.2%.
Tomorrow, economic news will be limited to April personal income, personal spending, and core PCE prices, all will be announced at 8:30 ET. This will be followed by the 9:45 ET release of the May Chicago PMI while the final Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey for May will cross the wires at 9:55 E.T.
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