Stocks at Wall Street ended strongly higher on Monday, 02 November, 2009. Strong batch of economic reports from US and across the world helped stocks make a strong start since the start of the day. But indices faltered in the mid session hours. Stocks went down due t the selling pressure which was augured by the fact that recent rally in stocks was overdone. But stocks soon recovered once again and ended strongly higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher by 76.71 points at 9,789.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index, ended higher by 4.09 points at 2,049.02. S&P 500 ended higher by 6.7 points at 1042.67. Dow was up by 100 points earlier during the day.
Eight of ten sectors ended in the green led by consumer staples and materials sectors. Telecom and utilities sectors were the main losers.
Weakness among financial stocks took indices down during the mid session hours. Nevertheless, stocks reversed their course. Nasdaq continued to remain under pressure during most part of the day due to weakness among big names like Intel, Google and RIMM.
Stocks opened the day on a strong mode. The Institute for Supply Management reported on Monday, 02 November, 2009 that USA's manufacturing firms expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years in October, putting this segment of the economy on what appears to be a sustainable growth path.
The Institute for Supply Management index rose to 55.7% from 52.6% in September, well above the 53% expected. It's the highest reading since April 2006. Readings over 50% in the ISM diffusion index indicate that more firms are growing than contracting.
In a separate report, The National Association of Realtors in US reported on Monday, 02 November, 2009 that pending sales of existing homes rose a seasonally adjusted 6.1% in September, the eighth consecutive increase. Buyers were rushing to beat the expiration of an $8,000 federal tax credit for first-time buyers.
On a yearly basis, pending sales are up 19.8% compared with September 2008. The index is the highest since December 2006. The index rose 6.4% in August.
Additional data proved pleasing, as well. Construction spending in September spiked 0.8%, which was a surprise since a 0.2% decline had been forecast.
Crude prices ended higher at Nymex on Monday, 02 November, 2009. Prices rose riding on the back of better than expected economic data. Still, prices closed at lower levels compared to their intra day highs.
On Monday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for December delivery closed at $77.3/barrel (higher by $0.29 or 0.4%). Earlier, during intra day trading, it rose to a high of $78.66.
In the currency market on Monday, the dollar index, which calculates the strength of the dollar against a basket of six other currencies reversed its course after dropping earlier during the day.
Other than company earning, there are no economic reports expected for tomorrow.
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