US markets gain shrugging off soft economic data

23 May 2014 Evaluate

The US markets closed modestly higher on Thursday, with high-growth and small-cap companies leading gains. Investors appeared to shrug off softer economic data, including jobless claims and existing-home sales. On the economy front, US manufacturing picked up to a 3-month high in May. The manufacturing PMI rose to 56.2 compared to the 55.4 in April. Readings for output and backlogs saw accelerated growth, while new orders, new export orders and employment expanded at a slower pace than April. The leading economic index for the US rose 0.4% in April to 101.4. The coincident index, which measures current conditions, edged up 0.1% in April, while the lagging index rose 0.2%. In March, the increase in the index was revised up to show a 1.0 increase instead of 0.8%. Besides, economic growth moderated in April, according to the Chicago Fed national activity index. The index fell to negative 0.32 in April from positive 0.34 in March. However, the three-month average rose to 0.19 from 0.04 in March - the highest level since November 2013. The index is a weighted average of 85 different economic indicators, designed so that a reading of zero is equivalent to trend growth.

Meanwhile, sales of existing homes rose 1.3% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.65 million. The median sales price of used homes hit $201,700 in April, up 5.2% from the year-earlier period, supported by low inventory. However, new applications for unemployment benefits rose sharply in mid-May, reversing a big drop earlier in the month that put initial claims at a seven-year low. The number of people who applied for new benefits climbed by 28,000 to 326,000 in the week ended May 17. Initial claims had fallen two weeks ago to the lowest level since May 2007, but the decline appeared to reflect seasonal quirks tied to a late Easter holiday that have now mostly faded away. The average of new claims over the past month, meanwhile, dipped by 1,000 and stood at 322,500.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 10.02 points or 0.06 percent, to 16,543.08, the Nasdaq Composite added 22.80 points or 0.55 percent, to 4,154.34 and the S&P 500 gained 4.46 points or 0.24 percent, to close at 1,892.49.

The Indian ADRs closed on mostly in red on Thursday; Tata Motors was down 1.41%, Infosys was down 0.70% and Wipro was down by 0.15%. On the other hand, ICICI Bank was up by 1.40% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.23%.

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