NST Online Business Times : latest
NST Online Business Times : latest |
| US stocks retreat amid pensive mood Posted: 12 Oct 2012 06:53 PM PDT WASHINGTON: US stocks gave up early gains on firm bank earnings and a rise in consumer confidence Friday to end the day broadly lower, with worries about the new earnings season clouding optimism. Better-than-expected third quarter gains by JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo gave stocks an early boost but profit-taking moved in quickly and only the blue-chip Dow stayed in the black -- just barely. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.46 points, or 0.02 percent, at 13,328.85. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 4.25 points (0.30 percent) to 1,428.59, while the tech-rich Nasdaq fell 5.30 points (0.17 percent) to 3,044.11. "However, the exuberance was short-lived as the key indices promptly fell through the unchanged line, to their session lows," said Briefing.com. With some 230 companies reporting third quarter earnings next week, the mood was pensive, analysts said. JPMorgan shares finished 1.1 percent lower, at $41.62, despite handily beating forecasts with a $5.7 billion profit, up 34 percent from a year earlier. Wells Fargo fell 2.6 percent after slightly surpassing expectations with a 22 percent earnings rise to a US$4.9 billion net for the quarter. Investors were disappointed in part by the bank's missing revenue expectations. Overall, the finance sector pared 0.8 percent, with Bank of America losing 2.4 percent and Citigroup dropping 2.2 percent. Advanced Micro Devices crashed 14.4 percent after cutting its outlook, but other chipmakers were fairly steady, with Intel shedding 0.9 percent for the day. The bid by Japan's Softbank to take over Sprint Nextel kept a focus on the US wireless sector. Sprint slipped 0.5 percent as details were sketchy about the deal under discussion. Market leader Verizon lost 1.3 percent, AT&T fell 1.7 percent and MetroPCS, in talks to be taken over by Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, gained 2.1 percent. -- AFP |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Business Times : latest To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan