US markets slip on worries over economic stimulus

12 Jun 2013 Evaluate

The US markets slipped on Tuesday, after Bank of Japan opted to hold its monetary policy steady, raising concerns that central banks will not provide additional economic stimulus. There were speculations on the street that Fed may withdraw stimulus earlier than expected. On the economy front, the US Labor Department reported that job openings at US workplaces declined to 3.76 million in April from 3.88 million in March. Compared with same period in the prior year, April’s job openings rose almost 7%, as private openings rose 6% to 3.36 million, and government openings increased to 402,000 from 360,000. With about 11.66 million unemployed people in April, there were 3.1 potential job seekers per opening, slightly higher than March’s ratio of three seekers per opening. Additionally, inventories at US businesses rose 0.2% in April to $504.8 billion, compared with a revised 0.3% increase in March. Sales of wholesalers climbed 0.5% in April, while the inventory-to-sales ratio fell to 1.21 from 1.22. However, small-business sentiment rose in May to the highest level in a year, a trade group stated. The National Federation of Independent Business’ small-business optimism index rose 2.3 points to 94.4 in May, which also is the second-highest level since the recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 116.57 points or 0.76 percent, to close at 15,122.00, S&P 500 edged lower by 16.68 points or 1.02 percent, to close at 1,626.13 while Nasdaq slipped 36.82 points or 1.06 percent, to end at 3,436.95.

The Indian ADRs closed in red on Tuesday, ICICI Bank was down 2.35%, HDFC Bank was down by 1.44%, Tata Motors was down 0.80%, Infosys was down 0.53% and Sterlite Industries was down by 0.18%.

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