Foreign Stock Market Headlines, Dated 23/12/2009
On Tuesday, the US market ended higher as a broad-based buying sent stocks to fresh 52-week highs on the back of a surprise downward revision to third quarter GDP and a gain by the greenback. The hosing data also came in stronger than expected. The economic reports fueled more optimism about economic improvement. US stocks start the session on a strong note, but the mood was tempered by news that third quarter GDP was determined to have increased at a slower-than-expected annualized rate of 2.2%, according to the third and final estimate. The consensus prediction called for no revisions to the 2.8% increase that had been posted in the previous estimate. Further the markets later gain momentum after the housing data came in stronger than expected. The markets however wasn”t able to close at its session highs as some moderate selling pressure emerged in the midsession stemmed from a bounce by the greenback. Meanwhile the treasuries continued to remain under pressure with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note rose to 3.75% for the first time since August.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) advanced 50.79 points at 10,464.93. Going ahead, NASDAQ index ended higher by 15.01 points to 2,252.67. The S&P 500 (SPX) closed up by 3.97 points at 1,118.02.
On the economic front, existing home sales figures for November climbed at a stronger-than-expected clip of 7.4% month-over-month. That lifted the annualized rate to 6.54 million units.
US light crude oil futures for February delivery rose $0.68 to settle at $74.40 a barrel. Today’’s move came after OPEC kept oil production unchanged, as expected.
Gold futures for the month of February delivery closed the session 0.8% down at $1,086.70 per ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures bounced off the $1,075 level as the dollar hit highs.
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