VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 03:07:24 04/09/13 Tue
Author: Tuesday 9/4/2013==7am MLB time Alcoa (5pm NY Monday 8/4)
Subject: U.S. Stocks Close Higher Ahead of Alcoa Earnings, Fed

U.S. Stocks Close Higher Ahead of Alcoa Earnings, Fed
09/04/2013 6:33AM

--U.S. stocks close higher after day spent largely in the red

--Investors wait for Alcoa earnings, Federal Reserve speech and minutes

--DJIA up 48.23; S&P 500 up 9.79


By Alexandra Scaggs

NEW YORK--U.S. stocks floated higher to close in the black Monday, erasing early losses as investors waited for the unofficial kickoff of earnings-reporting season and possible policy signals from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 48.23 points, or 0.33%, to 14613.48. The Dow had been down as much as 67.45 points at its intraday low. The blue chips have posted bounces in the final minutes of trading every day this month.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained 9.79 points, or 0.63%, to 1563.07, in light trading volume. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 18.39 points, or 0.57%, to 3222.25.

Will Bertsch, managing director and head of facilitation trading for BMO Capital Markets, said part of the late-day bounces can be attributed to large funds adding to their stock holdings toward the end of the day. But he also has seen investors buying into market weakness.

"People are worrying about missing a big move up in equities if the economy is getting better. Investors are looking for return. It ties back to that more than anything," he said.

But Mr. Bertsch added he has seen investors trimming some of their exposure to riskier sectors by shifting their cash into large, liquid companies from stocks that are smaller or seen as being more dependent on economic growth.

Investors were looking ahead to first-quarter corporate earnings, as Alcoa was the first Dow component to announce results after the closing bell Monday. The pace of reporting will pick up later in the week, as J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are due to report Friday.

"We'll need some good data to keep us moving upward," said Randy Warren, chief investment officer of Warren Financial Service. "We'll have to see if and when people start jumping back in."

Monday evening, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak at an Atlanta Fed conference. The central bank will release minutes from its March meeting Wednesday.

"The market wants to hear that the Fed is there" and will keep its stimulus programs in place, said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, which manages roughly $1 trillion in assets.

In Europe, upbeat data from Germany helped offset some concerns over Portugal as the Stoxx Europe 600 index edged up to close 0.2% higher.

Total German industrial output in February rose more than expected, suggesting the euro zone's largest economy may be slowly bouncing back from a weak patch.

But Portuguese stocks slumped after Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said he would look for fresh ways to keep its bailout program on track, after a Constitutional Court ruled some of the austerity measures aimed at public employees were discriminatory.

"This is the third bad European story this year, and the first two instances told us that the market doesn't care" about the euro zone's travails, said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist with BTIG.

Asian markets were mixed. Japanese stocks surged on the back of a weakening yen, while China's market reopened after a four-day weekend with a decline on concerns over the latest outbreak of bird flu.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 2.8% to its highest level since August 2008. Exporters benefited from the yen's decline to a near four-year low against the dollar, following the Bank of Japan's new easing measures last week.

China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.6% to its lowest since December 2012.

Crude-oil futures added 0.7% to settle at $93.36 a barrel, while gold futures declined 0.2% to $1,572.00 a troy ounce. The dollar rallied against the yen, but lost ground against the euro. Demand fell for the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note, pushing yields higher to 1.734%, snapping a three-day streak of losses.

Lufkin Industries soared 38% after the oil-and-gas company agreed to be acquired by Dow component General Electric for about $3.3 billion in cash. GE shares tacked on 0.8%.

U.S.-listed shares of National Bank of Greece tumbled 12% after the government suspended the bank's planned merger with Eurobank Ergasias, after the two lenders fell short of their plans to raise capital. There were worries among Greece's international lenders the combined entity could become too big to be bailed out.


Write to Alexandra Scaggs at alexandra.scaggs@dowjones.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 08, 2013 16:33 ET (20:33 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.