US stocks ended with big losses for the week that ended on 21 June 2013. Stocks posted losses for the week, which was dominated by fears that the Federal Reserve may begin pulling back stimulus later this year. Indices lost close to 2% for the week.
For the week, the Dow ended lower by 270.78 points (1.8%) at 14,799.4. Nasdaq ended lower by 66.31 points (1.9%) at 3,357.25. S&P 500 ended lower by 34.31 points (2.1%) at 1,592.43.
On Monday, the major averages ended session with solid gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.8% after spending most of the day near its highs. The index stumbled in the afternoon after a report suggested Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was likely to discuss modifying the Fed's asset purchase program at Wednesday's press conference. Netflix jumped 7.1% after the company announced a multi-year partnership with DreamWorks Animation.
On Tuesday, the major averages ended higher across the board. Equities climbed steadily since the opening bell as investors prepared for Wednesday's policy decision. The steady climb leading into the Wednesday session suggests investors expected mostly reassuring words from Chairman Bernanke.
The first half of Wednesday's session was rather uneventful, but the afternoon FOMC Statement and subsequent comments from Chairman Bernanke sent equities and Treasuries to their lows while also providing a significant boost to the dollar. During his remarks, Chairman Bernanke said if conditions continue to improve, the Fed could reduce the pace of purchases later this year with a potential end to purchases coming in the middle of 2014. He also suggested downside risks have diminished since the fall, but the Fed will not sell securities as long as the market remains in normalization stage.
The Dollar Index saw the sharpest post-FOMC move as investors dumped other currencies in favor of the greenback.
On Thursday, equities ended with sharp losses across the board as Wednesday's selling persisted into the next day, and dragged global shares into the fray. The S&P 500 fell 2.5%. The consumer staples sector led to the downside with a loss. Precious metals had a flashback to mid-April as gold sank 6.8% to $1280.10 per ounce while silver dropped 9.4% to $19.59 per ounce.
US stocks eked out modest gains on Friday, 21 June 2013. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 41.08 points, or 0.3%, to 14,799.40. After a very choppy trading session, the S&P 500 index gained 4.24 points, or 0.3%, to end at 1,592.43. The Nasdaq Composite fell 7.39 points, or 0.2%, to end at 3,357.25.
Eight of the S&P 500's 10 major sectors ended higher, with consumer staples leading gainers and information technology leading decliners.
Hewlett-Packard was the top decliner, while Procter & Gamble was the top gainer in the Dow on Friday. The tech-heavy index was hurt by a 9.3% drop in shares of Oracle. The tech bellwether delivered a disappointing quarterly earnings report late Thursday.
Friday was a quadruple-witching session, meaning expirations for index futures, options on index futures, single-stock futures and stock options. Such sessions can be the most heavily traded days of the year.
More than 2 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Composite volume topped 5.6 billion.
Bullions ended higher at Comex on Friday, 21 June 2013. Gold prices ended slightly higher on Friday but swung to a weekly loss of nearly $100, fueled by a potential slowing of the Federal Reserve's bond purchases later this year.
Gold for August delivery gained $5.80, or 0.5%, to $1,292.10 an ounce, but posted a weekly loss of $95.60 (6.8%). The July contract for silver ended up by 14 cents, or 0.7%, to $19.96 an ounce, after dropping $1.80 on Thursday.
Crude-oil futures fell on Friday, 21 June 2013 at Nymex extending the previous session's losses and snapping a two-week win streak. A strong dollar pressured prices. Crude for August delivery shed $1.45, or 1.5%, to settle at $93.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract swung to a weekly loss of $4.38 a barrel (4.5%).
The dollar index, which weighs the strength of dollar against a basket of six other currencies rose by 0.5% on Friday.
Indian ADRs ended mostly higher on Friday. In the IT space, Infosys was up 0.8% and Wipro was up 1.3%. In the Banking space, HDFC Bank was up 1.7% and ICICI Bank was up 0.7%. In other space, Tata Motors was up 1.1%, Dr Reddys was up 3.8% and Sterlite was up 1.11%.
For the year, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 are trading higher by 12.9%, 11.2% and 11.7% respectively.
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