US stocks ended in a mixed but steady mode on Wednesday, 07 October, 2009. The moderately strong dollar weighed on the stock prices today. Despite that, with leadership from energy and financial sectors, stocks managed to climb up partly.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower by 5.7 points at 9,725.6. The Nasdaq Composite Index, ended higher by 6.8 points at 2,110.33. S&P 500 ended higher by 2.9 points at 1057.58.
Seven of the ten economic sectors ended in the green led by financials, technology and energy sectors. Telecom and industrials were the main laggards.
Stocks spent most of the session trading listlessly as the dollar Index recovered from losses in the past three sessions. Bank stocks emerged with strength after struggling to find direction in the early going. Nonetheless, metals and mining stocks made their way to a decent gain. That helped support the materials sector.
In the earnings area, Monsanto came out with its latest earnings release. The company posted better-than-expected adjusted earnings but reaffirmed downside guidance for fiscal 2010. In other earnings news, Yum! Brands posted better-than-expected earnings of its own, but raised its 2009 guidance. Costco posted quarterly adjusted earnings that topped the consensus, as well.
Earnings season gets officially underway today when Dow component Alcoa reports its latest results after today's close. However, reporting doesn't pick up in earnest for a couple of more weeks yet.
Crude prices ended below the $70 mark at Nymex on Wednesday, 07 October, 2009. Prices fell as energy department reported that build up gasoline inventories was more than expected for last week. The relatively steady dollar also hammered crude prices.
On Wednesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for November delivery closed at $69.57/barrel (lower by $1.31 or 1.8%). During intra day trading, it rose to a high of $71.76. Last week, crude ended higher by 6%.
The EIA reported today that stockpiles of motor gasoline increased by 2.9 million barrels in the week ended 2 October, 2009. Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 700,000 barrels on the week. The EIA also reported a drop of 1 million barrels in crude inventories, as imports fell by 4.5%.
In the currency market on Wednesday, the dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against a basket of other currencies, rose by almost 0.3%.
In the latest report, EIA also announced an upward revision in its expectations for world oil consumption. The revision amounts to an increase of 200,000 barrels a day for the remainder of 2009 and for 2010, in large part because of improved expectations for Asian growth.
For tomorrow, there are two economic reports are scheduled to be released at 8:30ET. First, initial claims figures followed by the continuing claims.
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