Late Market Roundup (DIS, GE, NWS, TAM, LFL)

Gold futures advanced to their six-week high today, as disappointing economic data encouraged traders to opt for safe-haven buying. Adam Klopfenstein, a senior market analyst with Lind-Waldock in Chicago mentioned, "Safe-haven appeal of gold is still on focus." He added, "People really don't have a good direction right now." Gold for December delivery has gained 0.6% to $1,224.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). According to the Wall Street Journal, Hulu LLC is exploring the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO). The executives of the company have met up with bankers over the past weeks for discussing the same idea and Hulu could raise about $2 billion through the IPO, according to a person close to the matter. Hulu is jointly owned by Walt Disney Co DIS, GE's GE NBC Universal, News Corp NWS and Providence Equity Partners. US Airline stocks reached their highest level in a year on the merger news from Brazilian airline Tam SA TAM and Chile's Lan Airlines LFL. TAM’s shares surged more than 26% after the announcement of a preliminary deal date. LFL and TAM are expecting to save $400 million annually after their merger in an all-stock transaction worth about $2.7 billion. Shares of LFL also moved up 2.57%. The NYSE Arca Airline Index (XAL) gained about 2.9%. The US dollar moved down against the euro and the Japanese yen following weak reports on manufacturing activity in the New York region and on home-builder confidence. Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT said, "Risk aversion continued to dominate trade in foreign exchange on the first day of the week." The dollar fell about 1.0210% against the yen. However, the euro gained 0.5094% against US dollar. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.