Wall Street bounces after 3-day slump on earnings hope

NEW YORK: US stocks were higher on Tuesday, rebounding after the S&P 500's worst three-day drop since November 2011, as bullish investors hoped a solid earnings season would ease global growth concerns.

Citigroup, up 3.2 per cent to $51.48, was among the top boosts to the benchmark S&P index after the bank posted better-than-expected quarterly results and said it would pull out of consumer banking in 11 markets.

But JPMorgan Chase shares lost 1.1 per cent to $57.54, after the biggest US bank posted third-quarter earnings. Wells Fargo, the fourth largest US bank, lost 1.6 per cent to $49.39 after its results.

The S&P financial index gained 0.7 per cent.

Johnson & Johnson shares lost 1.3 per cent to $97.82 even after the diversified healthcare company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings on the back of strong sales for a new hepatitis C drug.

The index closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since Nov. 16, 2012, on Monday and is now down 6.1 per cent from its record closing high on September 18.

S&P 500 companies are expected to show earnings growth of 6.4 per cent in the third quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data, with revenue growth expected at 4 per cent. After the close, Dow component and chipmaker Intel is set to post results.

At 10:58am, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 84.83 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 16,405.9, the S&P 500 gained 12.45 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 1,887.19 and the Nasdaq Composite added 39.84 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 4,253.50.

The largest per centage gainer on the S&P 500 was Delta Air Lines, up 5.6 per cent, while the largest per centage decliner was ONEOK Inc, down 3.3 per cent.

The largest per centage gainer on the Nasdaq 100 was NXP Semiconductors, up 5.1 per cent, while the largest per centage decliner was Autodesk, down 2.1 per cent.

Among the most active stocks on the NYSE were Bank Of America, up 0.67 per cent to $16.51; Petrobras, up 0.23 per cent to $17.31; and Advanced Micro Devices, down 1.09 per cent to $2.71.

On the Nasdaq, APPLE, up 0.3 per cent to $100.08, and Facebook, up 0.5 per cent to $73.34, were among the most actively traded.

Advancing issues were outnumbering declining ones on the NYSE by 2,020 to 953, for a 2.12-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,862 issues were rising and 690 falling for a 2.70-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 6 new 52-week highs and 23 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 16 new highs and 121 new lows.

Wall Street falls, Dow in negative territory for 2014

NEW YORK: US stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow ending in negative territory for the year and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posting their worst weeks since May 2012.

Technology shares led the day's decline after a chipmaker warned of a major pullback in the industry.

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 115.15 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 16,544.1, the S&P 500 lost 22.08 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 1,906.13 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 102.10 points, or 2.33 per cent, to 4,276.24.

Source : economictimes

World Stock Market : Dow Jones average hits highest mark since '07

NEW YORK: The fastest growth in US manufacturing in 10 months gave stocks a lift Tuesday and pushed the Dow Jones industrial average to its highest close in more than four years.

Manufacturing expanded last month at the strongest pace since June, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Orders, hiring and production all rose.

A measure of manufacturing employment also reached a nine-month high, a hopeful sign ahead of Friday's monthly jobs report.

The manufacturing news jolted stock indexes out of a morning stupor, although the gains waned throughout the afternoon. The Dow added 65.69 points to 13,279.32, its highest closing mark since Dec. 28, 2007, during the first month of the Great Recession.

Treasury prices fell, and benchmark crude oil rose $1.29 to settle at $106.16 per barrel. Both of those things tend to happen when investors expect stronger economic growth.

In a separate report Tuesday, the Commerce Department said construction spending ticked up in March, following two months of declines.

Other indexes pushed higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose eight points to 1,406. The Nasdaq composite climbed four points to 3,050.

All 10 industry groups within the S&P 500 climbed, led by energy companies. Chesapeake Energy Corp. jumped 6 per cent on reports that the company will strip CEO Aubrey McClendon of his chairman's title.

McClendon, Chesapeake's founder, was under fire for taking out more than $1 billion in loans using the company's wells as collateral. Chesapeake recently agreed to end the program that allowed McClendon to take personal stakes in the wells.

The S&P finished April in the red, its first losing month since November. The Dow managed a tiny gain.

Judging by its track record, May isn't a promising month for stocks. Since World War II, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 0.31 per cent in May. For all months, the average gain is 0.67 per cent.

Among stocks making big moves:

Sears Holdings Corp. soared 15 per cent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500. The operator of Kmart and Sears stores expects to post a first-quarter profit thanks to a gain from the sale of some US and Canadian stores. The company's stock has jumped 99 per cent so far this year.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. gained 7 per cent after the food conglomerate reported profits that beat analysts' expectations. Profits dropped by nearly a third over the past year, pulled down by one-time charges and lower weaker results from its ethanol and oilseeds businesses.
 
Avon Products Inc. fell 8 per cent, the largest drop in the S&P. The company said earnings plunged 82 per cent, hurt by a bigger restructuring charge, commodity costs and rising labor costs. The results were worse than analysts had expected.

World Stock Market : Apple, Amazon drive US stocks past dull GDP data

NEW YORK: Tech giants Apple and Amazon proved their mettle to doubting investors once again, leading US stocks higher in the week to Friday as the markets showed they had not yet run out of steam.

The world's biggest company, market value-wise, and the Internet's biggest retailer, both showed up analysts with forecast-busting results that gave the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 firm boosts.

They also helped distract from other possible sources of investor worry -- a somewhat glum US growth report for the first quarter, Federal Reserve inaction on hopes for more stimulus, new worries in Europe and some concern about Chinese growth.

Friday brought a lower-than-forecast estimate for first-quarter US growth, of only 2.2 per cent, down from 3.0 per cent in the final quarter of 2011.

But even that failed to dull the markets, which turned in gains for the day.

US markets scored a firm performance for the week, with earnings from a number of firms beating forecasts and cheering the investors.

For the week the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.53 per cent to end at 13,228.31, and the S&P gained 1.8 per cent to 1,403.36.

The Nasdaq though picked up 2.29 per cent, helped mainly by Apple's 5.2 per cent gain for the week, and Amazon's 19.4 per cent run.

Also helping the markets were blue-chip Boeing's earnings, which delivered a 5.1 per cent boost to the aircraft maker's shares for the period.

"The reporting period has been much better than expected, although admittedly from a lower bar -- 83 per cent of companies have beaten expectations so far, which is an all-time record high," said analysts at Charles Schwab & Co.

"But market reactions to good reports have been more muted relative to the punishments doled out to those that disappointed."

Among the disappointments were Caterpillar, which lost 2.9 per cent for the week; Procter & Gamble, down 4.6 per cent; and United Continental, down 3.2 per cent.

Even so, said Bryan Sapp of Schaeffer's Investment Research, the markets did not appear to want to fall.

"The one certainty remains that this market is made of Teflon. Seemingly no matter what happens, the bears just can't manage to take the reins and drive us lower, despite abysmal economic data and numerous macroeconomic fears," he said.

The Charles Schwab analysts said they remained optimistic, but wary nonethless.

"Despite an earnings season that has been much better than expected so far, investors appear to be again focusing on more macro concerns," they said.

"Europe and China are dominant concerns but US growth sustainability is also being questioned."

Company results in the coming week include Pfizer and Motorola (Tuesday), Comcast and Time-Warner (Wednesday), and Viacom, Kraft, AIG and General Motors (Thursday).

Even if company earnings are driving sentiment, eyes will still be on data releases covering April in the coming week: consumer spending (Monday), the ISM manufacturing index (Tuesday), industrial orders (Wednesday); and the ISM services survey (Thursday).
Source : Economics Times