US markets slip on weak holiday sales and tapering concern

03 Dec 2013 Evaluate

The US markets closed lower on Monday, as investors debated whether a record rally has become overextended and were nervous over the timing of a Federal Reserve decision to scale back its bond-buying program. The street also took note of weak holiday sales which raised concerns about the state of the consumer. There were some good reports on the economic front. Manufacturing conditions improved in November to their best level in more than two years. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index climbed to 57.3% from 56.4% in October, reaching the highest level since April 2011. The subcomponents of the ISM report were strong, as new-orders index increased in November by 3 percentage points to 63.6%, and the production index increased by 2 percentage points to 62.8%.

Besides, US manufacturing accelerated to a ten-month high in November. The manufacturing PMI rose to 54.7, which is above the flash estimate of 54.3 and compared to the 51.8 reading in October. Readings for output, new orders, new export orders, backlogs, output prices, and quantity of purchases all saw accelerating growth. The Commerce Department reported that outlays for US construction projects rose in October after falling in September. The government released two months of data because of delays caused by the federal government shutdown. Construction spending rose 0.8% in October to an annualized rate of $908.4 billion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 77.64 points or 0.48 percent to 16,008.80, the S&P 500 was down 4.91 points or 0.27 percent to 1,800.90 and Nasdaq slipped 14.63 points or 0.36 percent to 4,045.26.

Indian ADRs closed in red on Monday; Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down 0.71%, Infosys was down 0.46%, HDFC Bank was down 0.30%, Tata Motors was down by 0.24% and Wipro was down 0.15%.

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