US stocks kicked off the week on a strong note on Monday, 19 October, 2009. Stocks made a weak start early in the day but then gathered momentum buoyed by overseas rally yesterday. Market waited with bated breath for two top names in the industry to divulge their earning reports - Texas Instruments and Apple.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 96.28 points at 10,092.19. Nasdaq ended higher by 19.52 points at 2176.32. S&P 500 added 10.23 points at 1097.91.
Caterpillar was the best Dow performer while GE was the worst Dow performer.
All ten sectors ended in the green led by consumer staples and utilities sectors.
Stocks did fall under a fit of pressure in the first few minutes of trade, however. The slip came about as financials reversed direction into negative territory. Their retreat was led by BB&T which actually posted this morning better-than-expected earnings.
Crude prices ended substantially higher at Nymex on Monday, 19 October, 2009 and ended near the $80 mark for the first time in a year. Lower dollar and encouraging figures about China's economy pulled up oil prices today.
On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for November delivery closed at $79.91/barrel (higher by $1.08 or 1.4%). Last week, crude ended higher by 9.4, the biggest weekly gain in two months%. In the past two weeks, crude has climbed up by almost 14%.
In a latest report, it was reported yesterday that China, the world's second biggest oil consumer, saw economic growth at an estimated rate of 9% in the third quarter. That's up sharply from 7.9% growth in the second quarter and 7.1% over the first half of the year.
In the currency market on Monday, the dollar came under further pressure after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York clarified it has been testing reverse-repurchase agreements for technical reasons, and that the tests shouldn't be seen as hints of a tighter monetary policy, which might ordinarily be bullish for the U.S. currency. The dollar index, which measures the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, fell by 0.3%.
After the close of U.S. trading on Monday, 19 October, 2009, Texas Instruments forecast fourth-quarter profit and sales that exceeded analysts' estimates, and Apple's fourth-quarter profit soared 47%.
Barring Rediff.com, Sify and Dr Reddys, all Indian ADRs finished in the green today. Wipro Technologies and MTNL were the largest gainers soaring 2.5% and 3.2% respectively.
Tomorrow, there is a plethora of earning reports expected. Among economic reports expected are Building permits, Housing Starts, Producer Price Index and Core Producer Price Index. Caterpillar is a major name among Dow
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