Apple rises 2.5% ahead of launch of new tablets
U.S. stocks finished little changed on Monday, 21 October 2013 with the S&P 500 adding a fraction to its record close and the Nasdaq Composite extending gains into a fourth session, bolstered by Netflix which released earnings just after the close.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.45 points, or less than 0.1%, to 15,392.20. The Nasdaq Composite rose 5.77 points, or 0.2%, to 3,920.05. After rising to an intraday record high of 1,747.79, the S&P 500 index rose a fraction to finish at 1,744.66.
Health care lost the most ground and telecommunications fared the best among its 10 sectors.
The outperformance of the Nasdaq resulted from the relative strength of the technology sector which was the leading cyclical group of the session. Top component, Apple advanced 2.5% in anticipation of tomorrow's press event where the company is expected to unveil a new line of tablets. The largest tech stock also drew strength from comments made by Gartner after the research firm said it expects tablet demand to remain strong into the holiday season.
Apple accounted for much of the tech sector's gain while other large components were mixed. Microsoft added 0.1% while IBM remained under pressure following its earnings miss last Thursday.
McDonald's fell 0.6% after the fast-food chain reported sales below expectations. Another Dow component, AT&T climbed 1.8% after the telecommunication company agreed to sell or lease 9,700 wireless towers.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. lost almost 0.1% after the bank reportedly agreed to pay $13 billion to halt U.S. civil investigations into its mortgage-bond sales.
The flow of backed-up U.S. government economic data began Monday with existing home sales data. The big economic report early this week will be the U.S. employment report for September, which is due out Tuesday morning. The key non-farm payrolls number of the jobs report is expected to come in at up 180,000, while the overall unemployment rate is expected to be unchanged at 7.3%.
September existing home sales hit an annualized rate of 5.29 million units, which was a bit weaker than the rate of 5.30 million units that had been generally expected by the consensus. The pace for September was down from the prior month's revised rate of 5.39 million units.
It's likely some of the postponed U.S. economic data that was due out during the two weeks the U.S. government was shut down will be cancelled. The fresh batch of U.S. economic data could make for more volatile price action in many markets that had seen a dearth of fresh U.S. economic/fundamental news for over two weeks.
Crude Oil futures settled below $100 a barrel on Monday, 21 October 2013 after U.S. government data showed that stockpiles of crude rose more than expected for the week ended 11 October 2013, marking a fourth-straight week of rising inventories. Crude for November delivery fell $1.59, or 1.6%, to settle at $99.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Energy Information Administration reported that crude-oil supplies surged by 4 million barrels for the week ended 11 October. Market had expected a climb of 2.25 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell by 2.6 million barrels, larger than the decline of 400,000 barrels expected by market. Distillate stockpiles decreased by 1.8 million barrels, above the decline of 1.3 million barrels expected by market.
Bullion metals settled steady at Comex on Monday, 21 December 2013. Gold futures settled higher Monday for a third session in four, building on last week's gain as traders geared up for a busy week of earnings and economic reports.
Gold for December delivery rose $1.20, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,315.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver for December added nearly 37 cents, or 1.7%, to $22.28 an ounce.
Decliners just overcame advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where 678 million shares traded. Composite volume cleared 3 billion shares.
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