US markets close lower on unease over fiscal cliff talks

28 Dec 2012 Evaluate

The US markets closed marginally lower on Thursday, on news that US House would convene Sunday night as lawmakers try to reach a deal to break the budget impasse before the end of the year. Investor unease over the unresolved fiscal cliff had pushed equities to multi-week lows and propelled the CBOE Volatility Index above 20 for the first time since late July. President Barack Obama has called congressional leaders to come to the White House in a last ditch effort to avert the fiscal cliff. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi are expected to attend the meeting. Besides, McConnell stated separately that Senate Republicans are open to any White House proposal to avert the fiscal cliff. Senate Majority Leader Reid responded that he was ready to introduce legislation to avert the fiscal cliff but wanted assurances that Republicans in the House and Senate would remove roadblocks that had killed earlier legislation to avoid the fiscal cliff. Reid urged the House to pass a Senate bill extending Bush-era tax cuts for those earning $250,000 a year or less. The Nevada Democrat stated that the House is being operated under a dictatorship of the speaker.

Separately, the Treasury Department soon will begin making accounting moves so that the United States can put off hitting its debt ceiling at the end of the month. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote a letter to Congress that his department will be forced to use extraordinary measures to finance $200 billion in deficit in early months of 2013. The US is set to reach its debt limit $16.4 trillion at the end of week. The extraordinary measures to finance $200 billion in deficit would be enough to fill the gap for two months. If Congress does not act to avoid automatic tax increase, average family may see an increase of $3,446, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington.

On the economic front, weekly initial unemployment claims filed at the end of last week decreased 12,000 to 350,000, according to the latest data released by the US Labor Department. Separately, Commerce Department stated that new home sales increased to a 377,000 annual rate in November, the highest since April 2010. The new home sales reached to the highest level in more than two years offering the latest evidence that the housing market is experiencing steady recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.28 points or 0.14 percent to 13,096.30, the Nasdaq lost 4.25 points or 0.14 percent to 2,985.91 and the S&P 500 closed lower by 1.73 points or 0.12 percent to 1,418.10.

Indian ADRs closed mixed on Thursday, ICICI Bank was down 0.55%, Infosys was down 0.44% and Dr Reddy’s lab was down by 0.22%. On the other hand, HDFC Bank was up 0.26% and Tata Motors was up by 0.22%.

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