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 to end flat on Monday. Euro fell to a four-month low against the dollar on rising debt concerns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 37 points at 11637, after seeing recovery of 64 points from day's low of 11,573.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 5 points at 2708, after a recovery of 25 points from day's low of 2,682. The S&P 500 Index ended down 2 points at 1260, after seeing recovery of 8 points from day's low of 1262.

US Declining Sectors: Financial declined 0.3%, Energy was down 0.4%, Utilities fell 0.6%.

CBOE VIX ended up 2.3% at 17.54, which was trading up 9% during the day - within reach of its 50-DMA and highest level in a month.

European markets ended lower: CAC was down 1.64%, DAX down 1.3% and FTSE down 0.5%.

Peripheral European markets: Athex Comp tanked 2.6%, PSI General Index lost 1.6% and IBEX Index was down 1.3%

Europe update

There were reports that Portugal was under pressure from Berlin and Paris to seek a bailout, few reports suggest that the bailout could be as big as Euro 80 billion; Portugal denied it ((Remember, Greece and Ireland have already accepted bail-outs))

Few traders suggest that ECB threw Portugal a temporary lifeline by buying up its bonds

Alert: Portugal, Spain and Italy to do bond auction worth USD 54 billion this week ((Portugal will sell 2014 and 2020 bonds on Wednesday. Italy will offer 2014 bonds and Spain will auction 2016 debt on Thursday))

US Results

Alcoa rose 0.5% but was down 1.6% in after hours ((stock had gained 27% last quarter)

It has posted highest profit in nine quarters but sales missed analyst estimates; 4Q net income was at USD 258 million, or 24 cents/share versus net loss of USD 277 million, or 28 cents/share. Sales went up by 4% at USD 5.65 billion against analysts