US markets closed mostly lower on a lackluster day

29 Jun 2013 Evaluate

The US markets closed mostly lower on Friday, and ended June month with losses as investors started to come to terms with the potential slowdown in the Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus program. A Federal Reserve official gave the clearest signal yet that the central bank’s bond purchase program may be scaled back in September. Federal Reserve Governor Jeremy Stein used only September as the hypothetical start date for slowing the pace of purchases. As a Fed governor, Stein has a vote in every meeting. Stein also suggested markets should not focus on fresh payroll numbers that come out just before the meeting, saying any decision by the Fed to slow the pace of its currently $85 billion-per-month asset-purchase program will be based on accumulated trends since the program started last fall, not the most recent data. While, John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed Bank stated that it is still too early for the Fed to cut back on its asset-purchase program. For one thing, the central bank needs to make sure that economy can maintain its momentum in the face of federal budget cuts. Williams added he is confident that Fed will be able to stop adding monetary stimulus in a way that does not jeopardize the recovery.

On the economy front, a gauge of consumer sentiment declined in June but remained close to an almost-six-year high. The final June reading of the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters consumer-sentiment index declined to 84.1 from a final May reading of 84.5. May’s reading was the highest since July 2007. The UMich gauge of consumers’ views on current conditions fell to 93.8 in June from 98 in May. Meanwhile, a barometer of consumers’ expectations rose to 77.8 from 75.8. On the other hand, growth in Chicago-area manufacturing decelerated in June, as the Chicago business barometer fell to a 51.6 reading from 58.7 in May. That’s the largest monthly drop in over four years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 114.89 points or 0.76 percent, to close at 14,909.60, S&P 500 declined 6.92 points or 0.43 percent, to close at 1,606.28, while Nasdaq gained marginal 1.38 points or 0.04 percent, to end at 3,403.25.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Friday, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 1.15%, ICICI Bank was up 0.96%, HDFC Bank was up by 0.39% and Tata Motors was up 0.33%. On the flip side, Infosys was down 0.20%.

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