Spike In Jobless Claims Fuel Fall In Crude
April 16th, 2010 by Bryden Elssmann
Closing Data
| Current | Change | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones | 11,144.57 | 21.46 | 0.2% |
| NASDAQ | 2,515.69 | 10.83 | 0.4% |
| S P 500 | 1,211.67 | 1.02 | 0.1% |
| FTSE 100 | 5,825.01 | 28.76 | 0.5% |
| Nikkei 225 | 11,273.79 | 68.89 | 0.6% |
| ASX 200 | 5,001.90 | 7.2 | 0.1% |
| COMEX Gold - Dec 09 | 1,160.30 | 0.7 | 0.1% |
| COMEX Silver - Sep 09 | 18.433 | 0.018 | 0.1% |
| COMEX Copper - Sep 09 | 360.05 | -1 | -0.3% |
| WTI Spot | 86.58 | -0.05 | -0.1% |
| AUD-USD | 0.9346 | -0.0005 | -0.1% |
| Aluminium | 2,419.50 | 50.5 | 2.1% |
| Copper | 7,924.50 | 79.5 | 1.0% |
| Lead | 2,333.50 | 28 | 1.2% |
| Nickel | 25,875.00 | 305 | 1.2% |
| Tin | 18,630.00 | -95 | -0.5% |
| Zinc | 2,385.50 | 18 | 0.8% |
Mixed leads from offshore markets may see our market struggle to find clear direction. Wall Street and precious metals both finished higher while copper and oil ended the session weaker. There was bad news from the latest US jobs data, the Labour Department said 484,000 new claims for jobless benefits were filed last week, up 24,000 from the previous week. Oil was spooked by the spike in jobless claims putting the brakes on the recent rally in crude. Oil fell US33 cents, or 0.4 percent to $US85.51 a barrel. Despite this, the Dow still managed to finish 21 points higher at 11,145.
US stocks climbed to nearly 19-month highs, led by industrial companies including Caterpillar and 3M following reports of improving manufacturing conditions. Caterpillar was particularly strong, up 1.4 percent while 3M climbed 0.7 percent, boosted by data that showed manufacturing output has increased. However most of the focus was on Google Inc.’s quarterly earnings report showing revenue came in higher than Wall Street predictions, investors were not convinced pushing the share price down -4.87 percent.
Chinese economic data was released yesterday, which showed a very strong set of figures; China’s 1st Quarter GDP up 11.9%, the biggest increase since 2007. The market was looking for 11.7%, the figure was up from 10.7% for the 4th Quarter 2009. Some pessimists fear that the worlds third biggest economy is overheating, strengthening the case for further policy tightening. Australian investors sold the market on fears of further policy tightening. However most analysts remain divided as to whether the economy is growing too quickly and the possibility of a resultant property bubble punching a hole in the national economy. For now, all agree that growth is strong, but there are signs of overheating.
Contact your Freeman Fox Stockbroker on 07 3031 9960 or 1800 003 369 Ext 7.
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