Market News The major U.S. averages started the week on a quiet note with the S&P 500 shedding less than a point. The S&P 500 closed less than a point lower at 1,962.61. The Dow industrials shed 9.82 points, or 0.1%, to 16,937.26. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day less than a point higher at 4,368.68. Large cap tech names held up well with the likes of Microsoft (MSFT 41.99, +0.31), Google (GOOGL 574.29, +7.77), and Oracle (ORCL 41.10, +0.28) climbing between 0.7% and 1.4%. For its part, Oracle rallied after announcing the acquisition of Micros (MCRS 67.98, +2.21) for $68/share. Today, the Case-Shiller 20-city Index (consensus 11.6%) and FHFA Housing Price Index will both be released at 14:00 GMT, while New Home Sales for May (consensus 440K) and June Consumer Confidence (consensus 84.0) will be released at 15:00 GMT. A soft tone to early Asia stock trading has shifted to modest gains as the day moves forward. Japan’s Nikkei Average, which was down 0.6% in the early morning, is now up 0.1% in its final hour of trade. Gold prices dipped Tuesday in Asia on profit taking with a mix of geopolitical uncertainty over Iraq and continued easy policy offering support triggers. Gold futures for August delivery traded at $1,315.60 a troy ounce, down 0.21%. Silver for September delivery was down 0.26% at $20.910 a troy ounce. Copper futures for September delivery were up 0.21% at $3.147 a pound. Crude oil prices dipped slightly in early Asia on Tuesday with the focus on Iraq where attempts to find a political solution are in progress The market is also awaiting data from industry body the American Petroleum Institue later in the day on U.S. crude stocks, which it said dipped last week by 5.7 million barrels. Crude oil for delivery in August traded at $105.8 a barrel, down 0.3%, AUD/USD traded at 0.9425, up 0.01%, while USD/JPY edged to 101.90, down 0.03%, and EUR/USD held at 1.3602, down 0.01%. Overnight, the dollar slipped against most major currencies on Monday as the euro recovered from soft European output data, while the escalating Iraqi insurgency offset positive U.S. housing data. The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was flat at 80.35.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 13:32:55 +0000
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