YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Stocks
started the day higher but were only able to hold a portion of their gains in a
session which saw two pullbacks to the unchanged line. After spending most of
the day in the black, the S&P 500 ended higher by 0.2%.
Telecoms were broadly higher as indicated by the iShares Dow Jones US
Telecom ETF (IYZ
25.22, +0.29), which added 1.2%. MetroPCS (PCS 10.31, +0.25) advanced 2.5% on
rumors regarding a possible merger with another major carrier. Meanwhile, Sprint (S 5.10, +0.10) and Verizon (VZ 44.89, +0.65) settled higher by 2.0%
and 1.5%, respectively.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average has been on a steady rise over the past
week, and it added another 0.8% today. Airline stocks showed strength as Delta (DAL 9.50, +0.22), Southwest (LUV 9.18, +0.23), and United Continental (UAL 20.31, +0.51) all posted gains
between 2.3% and 2.6%. Shipping and trucking stocks were also higher as Overseas Shipholding
Group (OSG 6.72,
+0.34) and Landstar (LSTR 49.62, +0.94) advanced 5.3% and 1.9%, respectively.
Financial stocks outperformed the broader market as banks continued adding to
their recent gains. Goldman Sachs (GS 118.24, +1.55), JPMorgan Chase (JPM 39.92, +0.32), and Citigroup (C 33.05, +0.39) all gained near 1.0%.
Meanwhile, Bank of America (BAC 8.97, -0.06) lagged the other majors with a 0.7% loss.
European financials were also on the rise with Credit Suisse (CS 22.55, +1.06) and UBS (UBS 12.82, +0.26) ending higher by 4.9%
and 2.1%, respectively. On the downside, Deutsche Bank (DB 42.43, -0.19) slipped 0.5% after
rallying more than 55.0% since July 25th.
Chinese internet stocks were on the move after Citigroup initiated coverage of
three names. Youku (YOKU 18.79, +0.94) and Sohu.com (SOHU 42.50, +1.50) received a ‘buy'
rating and gained 5.3% and 3.7%, respectively. Meanwhile, Renren (RENN 3.81, +0.04) added 1.1% despite
receiving a ‘sell' rating. Elsewhere, Yahoo! (YHOO 15.40, +0.24) rose by 1.6% as the
company is expected to acquire the assets of online business-to-business
trading platform, Alibaba, by the end of the week.
Shares of Facebook (FB 20.93, +1.50) jumped 7.7% after Chief Executive Officer Mark
Zuckerberg participated in a Q&A session at an event in San Francisco last
evening. At the event, Mr. Zuckerberg commented on mobile ads, saying that they
are performing better than the ones which appear on the desktop platform. In
addition, Zuckerberg called Zynga (ZNGA 3.07, +0.28) a "fundamentally strong
company." Shares of ZNGA spiked 10.0% in response to the comments.
Export prices, excluding agriculture, increased by 0.4% in August after they
had decreased by 1.4% in the prior month. Excluding oil, import prices were
down in August by 0.2%, which follows a 0.3% decrease experienced in the prior
month.
Separately, wholesale inventories were up 0.7% in July. That is higher than the
increase of 0.3% which had been broadly forecast.
Tomorrow's key economic events include the Federal Open Market Committee
announcing its statement and rate decision at 12:30 ET, and its economic projections
at 14:00 ET. Finally, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a press
conference at 14:15 ET.
A handful of economic data points are scheduled to be released tomorrow.
Initial and continuing claims, as well as PPI and core PPI will be released at
8:30 ET while the U.S. Treasury will report its budget at 14:00 ET.
Crude oil touched a session
high of $97.49 per barrel in morning action but slid to a session low of $96.30
per barrel following weaker-than-anticipated inventory data that showed a build
of 1.994 mln barrels when a draw of 2.8 mln barrels was expected. The energy
component then chopped around slightly below the breakeven line and settled
just 3 cents lower at $97.01 per barrel.
Natural gas dipped to a session low of $2.95 per MMBtu in morning floor trade
but rallied back into positive territory in afternoon action. It settled with a
2.3% gain at $3.06 per MMBtu, or just below its session high of $3.07 per
MMBtu.
Precious metals traded higher in overnight action as the dollar index fell
following the German Constitutional Court's ruling rejecting the injunction
against the ESM. However, the momentum faded and both gold and silver fell into
negative territory in morning pit action.
Gold dipped to a session low of $1728.50 per ounce and spent the remainder of
its session trading in a consolidative pattern just below the unchanged line.
It eventually settled 0.1% lower at $1733.40 per ounce. Silver attempted to
erase losses after it fell to a session low of $32.51 per ounce. Despite
inching higher, the metal settled with a 1.0% loss at $33.26 per ounce
The U.S. Treasury will hold a $13 billion, 30-yr reopening.DJ30 +9.99 NASDAQ
+9.78 SP500 +3.00 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1467/1.65 bln/990 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec
1965/663.7 mln/1043