NST Online Business Times : latest

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 04:37 PM PDT

NEW YORK: US stocks on Friday finished a volatile day little-changed as markets gyrated over competing headlines on the August US jobs report and the G20 debate among global leaders on Syria.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 14.98 (0.10 per cent) to 14,922.50. The broad-based S&P 500 closed at 1,655.17, up 0.09 (0.01 per cent), while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index taked on a scant 1.23 (0.03 per cent) to 3,660.01.

Markets opened higher Friday but soon veered solidly into negative territory for a stretch before going positive again late morning and finally settling near flat.

The Labor Department said the US added 169,000 jobs in August, below analyst projections of 177,000. The report also lowered the estimates for jobs added in June and July.

The jobs report yielded competing interpretations over what the reports said about economic growth and meant for the Federal Reserve's plans to taper its stimulus program.

Scott Wren, a senior equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, said the report "wasn't good at all," but argued that it probably either delays a Fed taper, or means a smaller reduction in bond-purchases.

"It's a 'what's bad is good' type of thing," Wren said.

The continuing dispute between Russia and the US over Syria also troubled investors, as US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin failed Friday to end their bitter dispute over US military action against Damascus at the G20 meeting.

Health care products company Johnson & Johnson rose 0.1 per cent as the company moved ahead with plans to sell its Ortho Clinical Diagnostics unit. J&J hopes to raise US$5 billion from a sale.

Apple rose 0.6 per cent amid anticipation of company events next week in the US and China that are expected to launch new products. The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is preparing to ship iPhones to China Mobile.

Yelp, the popular crowd-sourced reviews website, rose 5.9 per cent after Deutsche Bank initiated coverage with a "buy" rating.

"Yelp has a large and rapidly growing audience, strong proprietary content across local verticals, and should see increasing traction with local advertisers on a multi-year basis," Deutsche Bank said. -- AFP

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Jumaat, 6 September 2013

NST Online Business Times : latest

NST Online Business Times : latest

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