US markets gain on Fed’s flexible comment

18 Jul 2013 Evaluate

The US markets inched higher on Wednesday; with the S&P 500 closing up for a ninth session in ten after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the rate of bond purchases is flexible. In the first day of his semi-annual Congressional testimony, Bernanke told that Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond buys are by no means on a preset course and can be curbed further or extended, depending on the economic climate. The central bank’s stimulus program is meant to keep interest rates down and encourage borrowing. Bernanke’s comments reinforced what investors already knew - that the Fed is looking at the broad economy, which is showing signs of improvement. The Fed would like to taper but will only do so if they see a faster growth rate or improvement in the labor market. In his prepared remarks, Bernanke added that housing market was likely to continue to recover despite the recent increases in mortgage rates.  The Fed chairman repeated that low inflation is due in part to some factors that are likely to be transitory. But he stressed for the first time that the Fed is certainly aware that very low inflation poses risks to economic performance, and added that central bankers would monitor the situation closely.

On the economy front, the US Department of Commerce reported that construction on new US homes fell 9.9% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000, reaching the lowest level since August 2012, led down by a large drop for apartments. The government also reported that building permits, a sign of future demand, fell 7.5% in June to an annual rate of 911,000.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18.67 points or 0.12 percent to 15,470.50, the Nasdaq was up 11.50 points or 0.32 percent to 3,610.00 and the S&P 500 added 4.65 points or 0.28 percent to 1,680.91.

The Indian ADRs ended mostly in red on Wednesday, ICICI Bank was down by 0.72%, HDFC Bank was down 0.49% and Tata Motors was down 0.36%. On the other hand, Infosys was up 0.40% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.12%.

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