While you were sleeping: Stocks and signals mixed

While you were sleeping: Stocks, and signals, mixed

November 11 (BusinessDesk) - Equities on Wall Street were mixed as better-than-expected U.S. jobless claims data offset increasing concern about Ireland’s budget problems.

In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was 0.03% higher and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index edged up 0.14%, both reversing earlier losses. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.33%.

A decline in initial U.S. jobless claims bolstered optimism that the world’s largest economy was finally showing signs of a sustained recovery.

“Quantitative easing has been priced in, the sovereign debt crisis is a long-term problem which resurfaces, and the soft landing of the Chinese economy will be tricky to maintain going forward,” Eric Teal, chief investment officer at First Citizens Bancshares Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina, told Bloomberg News.

General Motors Co posted a US$2 billion third-quarter profit, driven by an accelerating turnaround in North America, and said it expected to post solidly profitable results for 2010, its first full-year profit since 2004.

The data provide the last piece of financial data for investors evaluating the US$13 billion IPO of the auto maker which emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009.

U.S. Treasuries declined after the government sold US$16 billion of 30-year bonds.

The bonds drew a yield of 4.32%, compared with the average forecast of 4.288% in a Bloomberg News survey of eight of the Fed’s 18 primary dealers.

The yield on the 30-year bond climbed eight basis points to 4.32% in early afternoon trading in New York, according to BGCantor Market Data.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 fell 0.7% from the highest level since September 2008 to close at 271.48.

National benchmark indexes declined in all of the 18 western European markets today. Ireland’s bench mark stock index ISEQ dropped 2.2% the yield difference of the country’s government bonds over German bunds soared a record of more than 600 basis points.

The widening spread in yields prompted LCH Clearnet Ltd to ask its clients to place a larger deposit when trading Ireland’s securities.

The Dollar Index, which measures its value against a basket of currencies, rose 0.57% to 77.88.

The greenback climbed to a one-month high against the euro and yen.

The euro fell 0.6% to US$1.3694. Against the Japanese yen, the U.S. currency gained 0.84% to 82.46.

Commodities fell, with the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, which tracks 19 raw materials, declining 0.72% to 316.81.

Oil gained after U.S. weekly oil data showed an unexpected fall in crude inventories and larger than anticipated declines in oil product stocks.

U.S. crude oil futures rose 67 cents to US$87.39 by 1543 GMT.

Crude stocks fell 3.27 million barrels in the week to November 5, against analysts' forecasts for a 1.4 million barrel rise, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed.

Gold and silver gave up some their recent gains.

Spot gold was bid at US$1,389.37 an ounce at 1604 GMT, against US$1,391.99 late in New York on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures for December delivery were down US$23.00 an ounce to US$1,387.10.

Silver was at US$26.98 against US$26.88.

(BusinessDesk)

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