US mkts witness 6th straight monthly gain in Feb

By Varinder Bansal, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

The US markets witnessed sixth straight monthly gain for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, and the third straight monthly gain for the Dow Jones.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 96 points at 12,226. The Nasdaq Composite was up 1.2 points at 2,782 and S&P 500 index rose 7 points at 1,327 on Monday.

Advancing Sectors: Telecom was up 1.5%, Utilities gained 1% and Materials went up 1%

Monthly performance: Nasdaq shot up 3.5%, S&P 500 up 4% and Dow Jones up 3.4% while Sensex tanked 2.7%.

Asian markets opened mixed; Straits Times was up 1%, Taiwan up 0.8%, Nikkei up 0.6% and Shanghai up 0.2%. However, Hang Seng fell 0.1%.

Alert: Kospi is shut today.

European markets ended higher; CAC was up 1% and DAX up 1.2% while FTSE was down just 0.12%. HSBC tanked 5.5% post poor results.

Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF was down 5% as it opens post January 28. CBOE VIX was down 4.5% at 18.35.

US Economic News

February Chicago PMI climbed to a 20-year high of 71.2 versus 68.8 in January while market expected 67.5

January pending home sales fell 2.8% month over month while market expected decline of 3.2%

January personal income was up 1% whereas market expected increase of 0.3%

January personal spending increased 0.2% while market expected increase of 0.4%

Global data

China