Friday, May 30, 2008

Foreign Market Reports May-30-2008

Thursday, the US stock market continue to close higher for the third consecutive day for the week backed by the upward revision to the first quarter economic growth rate and a sharp drop in crude prices. The retailer stocks posted a solid gain on the back of mixed batch of earnings reports from Costco and Big Lots both posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings results. However, Sears Holdings unexpectedly lost $0.53 per share in its latest quarter, excluding items, compared to a profit of $1.15 per share in the prior year.
On the economic front, the first quarter GDP was revised higher to 0.9% from 0.6% matching the consensus estimate. The reading remains below the 3% normal growth rate.
Further, the number of weekly jobless claims reading held mostly steady at 372,000, which was roughly in-line with expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) advanced by 52.19 points to close at 12,646.22. The S&P 500 (SPX) index increased by 7.42 points to close at 1,398.26 and the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) grew 21.62 points to close at 2,508.32.

Among the Dow’s 30 components, 24 components ended in green mainly led by the stocks like Johnson & Johnson and Citigroup up nby 2.4% and 2% respectively.

A total of 0.8bn shares were traded on the NASDAQ, with advancing stocks outpaced the declining stocks by 8 to 5. On NYSE around 1.2bn shares traded for the day, with advancing stocks outpaced the declining stocks by 2 to 1.

Crude oil futures for the month of June delivery closed lower by $4.40 at $126.62 per barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange. The crude prices fell after the dollar strengthened against its rival currencies and also after the inventory report announced by the Energy Department showed a large weekly drop in crude inventory levels since 2004. As per the weekly inventory report by the Energy Department, crude supplies dropped by 8.8 million barrels to 311.6 million for the week ended 23 May.

The gold prices for the month of June delivery fell by $23.30 to settle at $881.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold prices ended lower for the third consecutive days after the dollar strengthened against its rival currencies.

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