Wall St little changed; financials rally fizzles
|
|
|
By Cal MankowskiNEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Wednesday after a rally in financial stocks ran out of steam while technology shares pared early gains.Home finance stocks Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae rose sharply, boosted by prospects in Washington for an agreement on a rescue plan for the housing market, including an emergency government lifeline for the two companies.Oil prices initially fell after government data showed a big increase in U.S. inventories of gasoline, but crude futures retraced most of the decline.Corporate earnings sent mixed signals, with Boeing Co reporting a bigger-than-expected drop in profit while AT&T posted quarterly results that showed stronger-than-expected wireless growth."Overall, the earnings season is going OK," said Peter Jankovskis, director of research at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. "It's probably somewhat better than people were expecting but not a real standout.""The financial system appears to have stabilized, but the main driver for stocks right now is oil prices," he said.The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 8.14 points, or 0.07 percent, at 11,610.64. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 4.67 points, or 0.37 percent, at 1,281.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 9.83 points, or 0.43 percent, at 2,313.79.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose as the House prepared to vote on a measure that will help the housing sector recover from its worst downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The White House said President George W. Bush will sign the bill into law. Shares of Freddie Mac jumped 10 percent to $10.65, while Fannie Mae climbed 15 percent to $15.37.Shares of AT&T , the largest U.S. telecommunications company and a Dow component, jumped 4.5 percent to $33.24.On Nasdaq, shares of Apple rose 1.4 percent to $164.32 after AT&T the exclusive U.S. network carrier for the iPhone, said the launch of the iPhone 3G was strong.Dow component Boeing fell 4 percent to $66.27.Home builders headed higher, pushing the Dow Jones home construction index <.DJUSHB> up 2 percent. Shares of luxury home builder Toll Brothers rose 1.4 percent to $20.66.Shares of specialty insurer Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp shot up 63 percent to $58.10 on the Nasdaq after Tokio Marine Holdings Inc of Japan agreed to buy the company for about $4.7 billion.U.S. front-month crude oil fell $0.35 to $128.07 a barrel. At one point the futures were down more than $2.(Additional reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Leslie Adler)
(c) Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related News
Five more US bank failures bring total for 2009 to 120
New York - Bank failures in the United States have risen to 120 this year as five more regional institutions were added to the list, the US agency that guarantees the safety of bank deposits said. United Commercial Bank in San Francisco with assets o...
US stocks climb slightly despite double-digit jobless rate
New York - US stocks posted mild gains Friday to end the week as investors shrugged off government figures that put the unemployment rate above 10 per cent. The Labour Department said the jobless rate hit 10.2 per cent in the month of October, the hi...
US joblessness hits 10.2 per cent, highest in 26 years - Summary
Washington - The US unemployment rate surged to 10.2 per cent in October, the highest in 26 years as another 190,000 people lost their jobs, the Labour Department reported Friday. The figure comes after a 9.8-per-cent jobless rate in September and wa...
US joblessness jumps to 10.2 per cent, highest since 1983 - Update
Washington - The US unemployment rate surged to 10.2 per cent in October, the highest in 26 years, as another 190,000 people lost their jobs during the month, the US reported Friday. The figure reported by US Labour Department came after the 9.8 per ...
US jobless rate jumps to 10.2 per cent
Washington - The US unemployment rate surged to 10.2 per cent in October as another 190,000 people lost their jobs, according to US Labour Department figures released Friday. The jobless rate stood at 9.8 per cent in September. Unemployment had been ...
Bulls stop James, edge Cavs - Summary
Los Angeles - The King couldn't deliver in the clutch. Luol Deng and Joakim Noah combined to deny LeBron James a potential game-winning drive in the final seconds as and the visiting Chicago Bulls snapped the Cleveland Cavaliers' three-game winning...
Mortgage lender Fannie Mae posts nearly 19-billion-dollar loss
Washington - US mortgage lender Fannie Mae said Thursday that it would seek 15 billion dollars in federal aid, after posting its ninth consecutive quarterly loss. Fannie Mae reported a net loss of 18.9 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2009, co...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
