Home
Investment
News & Views
Company News
news storage
US Close: Facebook excites the market
Tue, 22 May, 2012
INVESTMENT NEWS
Company Search
Search QCK.COM
Investment Home
News & Views
Top Stories
Charting
Company Search
Watchlist
Market Reports
Market Buzz
Company News
Economic News
New Issues
Other News
US Close: Facebook excites the market
Wed, 1 Feb 2012, 23:08:00
<b>Dow Jones: +0.66% S & P 500: +0.89% NASDAQ: +1.22%
 </b>
 Wall Street had an up day but closed far from its intraday highs. Investor confidence was boosted by strong manufacturing data from the Institute of Supply Management which offset slightly worse than expected employment figures.
 
 Other factors in play have been a host of corporate earnings coming in ahead of expectations and, of course, the looming flotation of Facebook has fired the imagination of many traders.
 
 The S & P 500 hit an intraday high of 1330 points, just three points away from 2012's highest level but eventually the index closed at 1324 points. 
 
 Reports emerged during the day of an agreement between Greece and its private creditors "within hours". Unsurprisingly, the actual confirmed agreement didn't materialise. Ever get that feeling you've been here before?
 
 The KBW Banks Index rose by 2.5% at one point but ended with a slightly less impressive gain of 1.7%. 
 
 ECONOMY 
 
 The January Institute of Supply Management manufacturing index came in at 54.1, "worse than expected, but higher than the level of 53.1 in December" said Jose Luis Martinez Campuzano, a strategist at Citi in Spain. 
 
 Campuzano stressed that "undoubtedly, the data on new orders was much higher than expected, up to 57.6 from 54.8." In addition, construction spending rose 1.5% against an expected rise of 0.6%. 
 
 The employment report by consultancy ADP indicated the creation of 170,000 jobs in the previous month, below the forecast of 185,000.
 
 EQUITIES
 <b>Whirlpool</b> (+13%) has been one of the most bullish stocks during the day after presenting better than expected results for the fourth quarter and improved projections for 2012.
 
 <b>Marathon Petroleum</b> (+9%) has confirmed it is evaluating "strategic alternatives".
 
 <b>Broadcom</b> (+8%) rose after presenting better quarterly results than expected. The firm's earnings per share of 68 cents beat the consensus forecast of 65 cents. 
 
 The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up 2.4%. 
 
 <b>Morgan Stanley</b> (+3.9%) has been chosen by <b>Facebook</b> to lead its IPO, which, on current estimates might put the firm on a capitalisation of $75bn. Interestingly <b>Amazon.com</b> (-7%) dropped on a reduced sales forecast for its first quarter.
 
 SECTORS
 
 The strongest sectors through Wednesday were Employment Services (+6%) and Life Insurance (+4.6%). 
 
 The weakest sectors were Trucks (-2.4%) and Retail (-1%). 
 
 VOLUME AND BALANCE 
 
 The NYSE saw 4.43 billion share trades, while on the Nasdaq the figure was 2.11 billion. The risers outstripped the fallers at a rate of 5 to 1 on the NYSE and 3 to 1 on Nasdaq. 
 
 OTHER MARKETS 
 
 Futures contracts on a barrel of oil fell 1%, to $97.32 on the Nymex. 
 
 The Euro gained +0.55% against the dollar to hit $ 1.3156 by the close. 
 
 BS
©2004-2009 QCK.com
