US markets end mixed despite good job report
In the US markets, stocks ended narrowly mixed with the major indices ending above key thresholds as sentiments continued to remain negative amid the political unrest in Egypt despite good job news. However, the markets took a breather from yesterday's multi-year highs.
February 03, 2011 / 07:53 IST
In the US markets, stocks ended narrowly mixed with the major indices ending above key thresholds as sentiments continued to remain negative amid the political unrest in Egypt despite good job news. However, the markets took a breather from yesterday's multi-year highs.
Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.02% or 1.81 points at 12041.97. Nasdaq Composite was down 0.06% or 1.63 points at 2749.56. Standard & Poor's 500 was down 0.275 or 3.56 points at 1304.03. In economic data, private employers added 187,000 jobs in January, according to the ADP employer services slipping from a downwardly revised gain of 247,000 jobs in December. In other jobs news, planned layoffs rose to 38,519 in January, up 20% from December.The mortgage bankers association's seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity rose 11.3% in the week ended Jan. 28. Commercial inventories of crude rose 2.6 million barrels in the January 28 week to 343.2 million for the third straight build as reported in the EIA petroleum status report.In the day's economic data to watch out for, the ECB is all set to announce its monetary policy with regard to interest rates at its first meeting of the month.Initial jobless claims for the first week of February are expected to drop to 425,000 from 454,000.Non-farm business productivity for Q3 is expected to revise upwards to a 2.3% annualized gain from the initial estimate of 1.9%.Factory orders for the month of February are expected to witness a modest decrease of 0.3%. The ISM non-mfg index is expected to remain unchanged at 57 for the month of February.The euro fell from a 2.5 month high versus the dollar as tensions in Egypt escalated and the S&P cut Ireland's credit rating. However, modest bids for the dollar kept the Euro's uptrend intact.Oil prices rise despite a rise in US crude stockpiles settling around the USD 91 per barrel mark on persisting concerns that the Egypt upheaval may spread across other Middle Eastern countries.
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