US mkts recover from day's low to end flat

By Varinder Bansal, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

The US markets recovered from day's low as ISM Service Index hit highest level since 2005. The dollar index gained 0.9%.

ECB President Trichet took a relatively dovish stance on inflation following the ECB's decision to leave its benchmark target rate at 1%

FOMC Chairman Bernanke said that the recovery has strengthened, but not enough to significantly reduce unemployment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 20 points at 12,062, after seeing recovery of 81 points from day's low of 11,981.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 4 points at 2,754, after witnessing a recovery of 29 points from day's low of 2,725. The S&P 500 Index went up 3 points at 1,307, after a recovery of 12 points from day's low of 1295.

European markets ended mixed; CAC was down 0.74% and FTSE down 0.28% while DAX rose 0.14%. CBOE VIX was down 3.5% at 16.7.

Alert: China, Hang Seng, Taiwan, Singapore stock markets shut today

US Economic News

Initial jobless claims for the week came in at 415,000 versus 457,000 (WoW) while market expected 425,000.

ISM non-manufacturing for January climbed to 59.4, best reading since 2005 (market expected at 57)

Fourth quarter non-farm productivity increased 2.6% as against market expected 2.2%

December factory orders increased 0.2% versus increase of 1.3% (MoM). Market expected decline of 0.6%.

Currencies

Dollar Index was up 0.9%, biggest bounce in almost one month

Dollar rose 1.32% versus Euro at 1.3625

Yen went up 10 bps versus USD at 81.5

Commodities

May sugar contract shed 9% at USD 0.3090 per pound, following news that Cyclone Yasi was downgraded to a Category 1 cyclone after it made landfall in Australia yesterday

March crude oil contract was down 0.4% at USD 90.54/barrel

March natural gas contract went down 1.9% at USD 4.34 per MMBtu

April gold contract was up 1.6% at USD 1353/ounce

March silver contract was up 1.8% at USD 28.72/ounce.

Data to watch

Nonfarm payrolls