Stock Market News for January 27, 2010 - Market News
U.S. stocks ended Tuesday in negative territory as a late-session selloff in financial and basic material shares offset an earlier advance that was fueled by Apple’s strong quarterly numbers. A better-than-expected reading on consumer confidence also helped traders’ risk appetites, but failed to address broader concerns.
Talks of exit strategies and expectations that China will adopt additional measures to cool economic growth also had investors keeping their fingers crossed even as the International Monetary Fund sought to allay some concerns by raising its forecast for world economic growth this year to nearly 4% from its previous outlook of 3.1%. Meanwhile, there are indications Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke could get a second term as the Senate set a procedural vote for Thursday, suggesting the needed votes for his confirmation were in the bag.
This morning Asian markets reflected those concerns as the Hang Seng fell to a 4-month low, down 0.4%, with the Shanghai Composite index closing down 1.1%. Japan’s Nikkei 225-stock average declined 0.7% and India’s benchmark Sensex plunged almost 3%.
Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) strong numbers came on the back of strong sales of iPhones and Macintosh computers. After the close, Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) reported a quarterly profit, helped by some strength in the advertising market.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 2 points or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 index slipped 4 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq composite retreated 7 points, or 0.3%. On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues were ahead of advancing shares three to two on volume of 1.12 billion shares. Expectations for additional China moves to tighten credit policy added to the US dollar's safety appeal, sending the greenback up 0.5% against a basket of currencies, driving commodities and resource shares lower.
Treasury prices strengthened after an auction of $44 billion 2-years generated better-than-expected demand. Bids for the 2-years equaled 3.13 times the amount offered, which compares favorably to the past year's average of 2.94 times for 2-year offerings. Nevertheless, bond traders remain glued to deficit concerns. Yesterday's Congressional Budget Office report projected a $1.3 trillion fiscal 2010 shortfall, less than fiscal 2009's $1.4 trillion deficit. Although this afternoon's FOMC policy report is expected to maintain status quo, it may signal plans to unwind stimulus measures, with some anticipating an end of its $1.25 trillion program of mortgage-debt repurchases in March.
A number of DJIA components come out with their numbers today, including Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), Boeing (NYSE:BA), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COF), Abbott Labs (NYSE:ABT) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX).
The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
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