US markets end marginally higher on better economic data

By Gautam Broker, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

The US equity markets ended slightly higher on Wednesday led by better economic data.

ISM services for September rose to 55.1 from 53.7 in previous month, which was far better-than-expectations of a mild drop to 53.5. Improvement was driven by new orders, which came in at 57.7 as against 53.7 during the same period - Best in six months.

ADP employment showed private payrolls up 1,62,000 as against consensus of 1,40,000. Mortgage applications went up 16.6% on week (at 3-year high).

European Central Bank (ECB) policy meet will be held today; consensus expects no change in key rates.

ECB's decision will be announced at 17:15 hours IST while press conference will be at 18:00 IST. Investors should watch out for comments related to Spain in the Q&A post press address.

Yesterday Spain's 10-year bond yields rose by 6 basis points at 5.81% while Italy's 10-year bond yields remained slightly above 5 percent.

Eurozone PMI for September came in at 46.1, which was largely flat MoM. But Germany was in contraction mode at 49.7 versus 50.6 MoM.

French PMI declined at 45 versus 46.1 MoM while UK's PMI was down 52.2 versus 53.7 MoM.

Eurozone retail sales rose 0.1% MoM as against expectation of a drop of 0.1%.

Watch out for today: Spanish euro 4 billion 3-year bond auction; BoE rate decision.

US markets at close: Dow Jones went up 0.1 percent to 13,494.6 and S&P 500 Index was up 0.4 percent at 1,451 while Nasdaq Composite moved up 0.5 percent

European markets at close yesterday: CAC was down 0.2 percent while DAX gained 0.2 percent and FTSE was up 0.3 percent.

Asian markets today: Hang Seng was up 0.3 percent and Nikkei gained 0.6 percent while Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were marginally lower. China's Shanghai shut today.

Currencies

Euro was trading at 1.29 against the US dollar ahead of ECB chairman Mario Draghi comments and Spain's auction today

Dollar index was rangebound at 79.9.

Yen was down ahead of Bank of Japan decision tomorrow, hitting a two-week low today at 78.6/USD

Australian dollar hit a month low yesterday at 1.019 to the US dollar (due to trade deficit), which was slightly above 1.02 today

Commodities

Crude oil prices dropped due to weak China and Europe data

Brent crude fell 3% to close at USD 108.2 a barrel

EIA says crude inventory was down 4,82,000 barrels as against expectation of 1.5 million barrels rise.

But crude production was at a 15-year high  

WTI crude hit a low of USD 87.7 a barrel yesterday, which fell 4.1% at close 

Gold was unchanged at around USD 1778 an ounce

LME Copper was down 0.4% yesterday

What to watch out for

US Weekly jobless claims 

US Factory orders

FOMC minutes (September 13 meet)