US markets ended mostly lower as home sales dip

22 Mar 2012 Evaluate

The US markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday, as home sales dipped and Hewlett-Packard Company’s restructuring plans which exerted pressure on the Dow average. Investors expressed skepticism about a decision to combine Hewlett-Packard’s printing and personal computing lines into a single unit. The National Association of Realtors’ reported that home sales fell 0.9% in February to 4.59 million versus an upwardly revised 4.6 million in January. Sales of existing homes fell 0.9% in February after an upward revision to the prior month, as improving job prospects, cheaper homes and warm weather led to the best start to the year since the bursting of the housing bubble. However, the association stated that the January and February levels were the best in five years. Besides, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke stated that increase in oil may slow economic growth, at least in the short term. The Fed bought $4.03 billion in US debt as part of its program to swap $400 billion of shorter-term securities with longer-term bonds. Bernanke also stated that Fed has reviewed the credit-default swaps or contracts that US banks have used to insure against defaults in Europe, and that they are widely dispersed. The central bank doesn’t expect a repeat of 2008, when American International Group Inc., a large counterparty on swaps, collapsed, Bernanke stated.

In Europe, the Greek parliament approved the €130 billion bailout with 213 lawmakers voting in favor and 79 against it. The Bank of England policymakers retained its quantitative easing unchanged at £325 billion through a split vote as two members, sought a £25 billion increase in the program, the minutes of the meeting showed. Also, German yield rose and Portuguese yields fell after successful bond auctions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 45.57 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,124.60. The S&P 500 lost 2.63 points, or 0.19 percent, at 1,402.89, while the Nasdaq was up by 1.17 points, or 0.04 percent, at 3,075.32.

Indian ADRs closed in green on Wednesday, ICICI Bank was up 0.80%, HDFC Bank was up 0.50%, Tata Motors was up 0.29%, Sterlite Industries was up 0.18% and Wipro was up 0.11%.

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