US markets jump on Bernanke’s dovish tune

12 Jul 2013 Evaluate

The US markets rallied on Thursday, with the S&P 500 up for a sixth day and setting a record finish, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that Fed policy would remain accommodative. Bernanke’s comments followed the release of minutes from the central bank’s last meeting, which had about half of the 19 members of the Federal Open Market Committee looking to cut the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases by the end of the year. The record also had many Fed officials looking for further evidence of improvement in the labor market before opting to cut the Fed’s quantitative-easing program. Besides, the federal government posted a budget surplus of $117 billion in June, reflecting both higher tax receipts and lower spending in the month and keeping the US on track for its lowest full-year deficit in five years. Including the June surplus, the budget deficit for the first nine months of the 2013 fiscal year totaled $510 billion, down 44% from the same period a year ago. The lower deficit is mainly due to higher tax receipts from individuals and corporations.

On the economy front, the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits in the first week of July jumped to the highest level in two months, but the increase may reflect temporary changes in summer employment patterns in large industries such as autos and education. Initial jobless claims rose by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 360,000 in the week ended July 6. Separately, the price of US imports fell 0.2% in June despite an uptick in fuel costs, the Labor Department stated, marking the fourth straight decline and indicating that inflation remains contained. Fuel costs rose 0.1% in June, but the price of all other imported goods such as food and industrial supplies dropped 0.3%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 169.26 points or 1.11 percent to 15,460.90, the Nasdaq added 57.55 points or 1.63 percent to 3,578.30 and the S&P 500 edged higher by 22.40 points or 1.36 percent to 1,675.02.

The Indian ADRs ended in green on Thursday, ICICI Bank was up by 1.95%, HDFC Bank was up by 1.76%, Infosys was up 1.46%, Tata Motors was up 0.43% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.36%.

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