US markets made late recovery to end the volatile day of trade flat

22 Dec 2011 Evaluate

The US markets made a mixed closing on Wednesday, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index higher for a second day, on late-breaking reports about Yahoo Inc. and Bank of America Corp. The markets spent most of the session in the red following the European Central Bank’s offer to lend a record amount to euro-area banks. Hope that came with the ECB’s loan plan faded on worries that it would not increase lending between banks nor will reduce the huge debt burdens of European governments. The ECB loaned 489 billion euros, or $639 billion, to 523 banks for three years - the biggest such injection into the banking system in the 13-year history of the region’s shared currency. Earlier, the market turned lower and tech stocks led the decliners after Oracle made cautious statement on large sales. In addition, the existing homes sales were also revised lower to 14% between the period 2007 and 2010 and raised serious questions about the reliability of the data from the industry association.

However, the market trimmed its losses in the last hour of trade as both Bank of America Corp. and Yahoo Inc. made a sharp recovery. The Justice Department announced a $335 million settlement with Bank of America over alleged discriminatory lending practices by its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit, putting an end to one legal issue hanging over the company. While, Yahoo was discussing a plan to cut its stake in Alibaba Group Holding to about 15% from 40%.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 4.16 points, or 0.03 percent, to 12,107.70. The Standard and Poor’s 500 closed higher by 2.42 points, or 0.19 percent, to 1,243.72, while the Nasdaq composite lost 25.76 points, or 0.99 percent, to 2,577.97.

The Indian ADRs made a mixed closing on Wednesday, ICICI Bank was up by 0.68%, HDFC Bank was up by 0.30% and Dr. Reddys Lab was up by 0.20%. On the flip side, Infosys Technologies was down 2.12% and Wipro was down 0.05%.    

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