US markets experienced a mixed activity on Monday, investors were cautious before the beginning of Q1 corporate earnings season. The ebb and flow of the market ended in a mixed fashion as Dow succeeded to close up from the support line while S&P 500 along with Nasdaq Composite declined fractionally.
The session was overshadowed by the large losses earlier while later in the day market post some gains, but overall it closed in red. According to the experts investors were feared about the impact of surging food and energy prices.
The chief investment officer for the private banking and investment group at Merrill Lynch, Christopher Wolfe, stated that the market was pressurized by the impacts of higher crude prices and a possible change to the Fed policy to counter the escalating prices.
Alcoa Inc. announced improved Q1 earnings report and beat the analysts estimates on Monday, presented a net income of $308.00 million or $0.29 per share in comparison with the last year’s net income loss of $201.00 million or $0.20 per share. AA shares reported a green performance for the earlier trading session where as it gave away the earlier gains and ended in red with 0.84% to $17.77, as the market remained concerned more nervous about the pending release.
The sales for the firm advanced to reach $5.96 billion from earlier $4.89 billion. Analysts’ average estimates were $0.27 per share in net income, on sales of $6.20 billion. The metals giant was satisfied and claimed that the earning indicated that the company found the right track and would achieve its 2011 financial targets.
Government got away from a possible shutdown following a the last minute deal on Friday night, executed one cause of concern for the market, but investors were concerned whether lawmakers would vote to raise the US debt limit in the spring this year.
Republicans and Democrats met on Monday for fresh discussion over government’s spending and loan, while President Barack Obama was preparing to give a key fiscal policy speech as well as the Republicans to offer him proposals about cutting the deficit.
President Obama would sketch out a plan to reduce the budget deficit that likely to ask for cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and also a change of policy regarding Social Security, as well as heaving taxes on wealthy Americans.
On the positive out come of the negotiations between democrats and republicans the US dollar reported significant gains versus major counterparts on Monday, retrieved it ground from losses during the last week as the European Central Bank raised interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained the momentum with +0.01% or +1.06 points to end the trading at 12,381.11. At one stage the index went up the base line and traded at the level of 12,446.80, while the winning streak was on during the session.
The volume for the last session at the index remained 109.90 million shares where as it opened at the level of 12,380.43. Index presented a positive monthly performance of +2.80% or +336.71 points and it rose to 6.08% 706.23% for the quarter which for the year maintained a green trend r with +13.58% or +1,388.76 points.
Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks edged higher a little on Monday, the stocks which remained advanced at the index were The Travelers Companies, (NYSE:TRV), added 1.41% to $60.42, Kraft Foods Inc., (NYSE:KFT) with +1.14% to reach $32.03, Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) moved up 1.03% to remain $20.67, Hewlett-Packard Company, (NYSE:HPQ) +0.86% to $41.05 and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and 3M, which reported an increment of 0.62% in the share price to close the session’s trading at $93.80.
Among volume gainers Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE:AA) was among the toppers of the list with 43,312 million shares on the improved Q1 earnings announcement and beat the analysts’ estimates on Monday. The profit for the firm reached $308.00 million or earnings of $0.29 per share against the last year’s loss of $201.00 million or $0.20 per share.
The stocks to follow were CSCO, INTC, MSFT, GE, JPM and T.
The S&P 500 slid -0.28% or -3.71 points to end the session at 1,324.46. The index was mostly hovered at the lower level and despite the gains it failed to close above the support line. Index moved between the range of 1,321.06 (low level) and 1,333.77 (high level).
The energy sector remained the worst category in the S&P 500 index on Monday as future contracts for crude fell after touching 30 months high of $112.79. Among the key energy stocks, Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) saw the correction of 2.50% to close at $46.93, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) slid 1.70% to $107.78 as well as the Exxon Mobil went down 0.90%, to reach $85.16.
Meanwhile, gainers at the index included BIIB, ANF, BBY, MAT and FDX.
The NASDAQ Composite Index posted decline of -0.32% or -8.91 points to 2,771.51, it had gained but only in small patches during the trading but over all downtrend was on. It achieved day’s high of 2792.95 while the day’s low was 2760.84.
On the Comex division at New York Mercantile, Gold fell 0.40% or $6.00 to $1,468.10 per ounce, while Silver reported $40.00 per ounce.
However, Light sweet crude for May futures shed 1.80% or $1.96 to settle $107.98 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
