Dow Jones, S&P halts four-session winning streak

20 Sep 2013 Evaluate

The US markets closed mostly lower on Thursday, as investor preferred booking profits with benchmark indexes retreating from record highs that came with the Federal Reserve’s unexpected decision not to begin stimulus tapering. The FOMC decision reflects its members agreed that things have improved, but not as much as they would have liked. On the economy front, the number of people applying for new unemployment benefits climbed above 300,000 again and could rise a bit more in the next few weeks as a pair of states work through a backlog of claims stemming from the Labor Day holiday and updates to their computer systems. The Labor Department stated that initial jobless claims climbed by 15,000 in the week ended September 14 from a slightly revised 294,000 in the prior week. An index of manufacturing conditions in the Philadelphia area jumped to the highest reading in more than two years in September. The Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index jumped to a reading of 22.3 in September from 9.3 in August. That’s the highest reading since March 2011.

Besides, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of existing homes in August hit the highest pace in more than six years as buyers rushed to lock in mortgage rates before they rose any further. Existing-home sales rose 1.7% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million, the highest level since February 2007, NAR reported. Separately, the leading economic index for the US rose 0.7% in August to 96.6, the Conference Board stated. The coincident index, which measures current conditions, rose 0.2% in August, while the lagging index advanced by 0.3%. In July, the increase in the index was revised down a notch to 0.5%.

Meanwhile, the amount the US owes to the rest of the world, known as the current-account deficit, fell almost 6% in the second quarter, primarily because the nation sold more goods and services abroad and foreigners earned less on their American assets. The current account mainly measures whether a nation is selling more goods and services to other countries than it buys from them. It also includes certain large money flows in and out of the country. The nation’s current-account balance fell to $98.9 billion from a downwardly revised $104.9 billion in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department stated.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 40.39 points or 0.26 percent to 15,636.50, the S&P 500 was down 3.18 points or 0.18 percent to 1,722.34, while the Nasdaq gained 5.74 points or 0.15 percent to 3,789.38.

Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Thursday; ICICI Bank was down 0.75%, HDFC Bank was down 0.65%, Infosys was down 0.53% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 0.22%. On the other hand, Tata Motors was up 0.21%.

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