US markets close flat; Dow Jones halts four-week losing streak

07 Sep 2013 Evaluate

The US markets closed mostly flat on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average halting its four-week losing streak, as Wall Street’s attention shifted from developments related to Syria to the impact of the jobs report on US monetary policy. Fed Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans stated that central bank should not cut back on its $85 billion in monthly asset purchases until economic growth and inflation pick up speed. Kansas City Fed President Esther George suggested that central bank could slow its bond-purchase program to $70 billion. George has been a persistent critic of the so-called QE3 program. George added that an appropriate next step toward normalizing monetary policy could be to reduce the pace of purchases from $85 billion to something around $70 billion per month.

On the economy front, the US created a modest 169,000 jobs in August, hiring was much weaker in July than previously believed and more people stopped looking for work in a sign that labor-market conditions worsened toward the end of the summer. The unemployment rate meanwhile fell, a tick to a four-and-a-half year low of 7.3%, but that was because fewer people were involved in job searches, according to new figures released by the Labor Department in the nonfarm payrolls report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 14.98 points or 0.10 percent to 14,922.50, the S&P 500 was up 0.09 points or 0.01 percent to 1,655.17, while the Nasdaq added 1.23 points or 0.03 percent to 3,660.01.

Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Friday; ICICI Bank was up 0.69%, Tata Motors was up 0.53% and Infosys was up 0.48%. On the other hand, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.11% and Sterlite Industries was down 0.05%.

   

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