Dow +0.08%  18,100.41  /  +13.96 
Nasdaq +0.17%  5,218.86  /  +8.72 
S& P +0.08%  2,128.28  /  +1.64

 

Wall Street was little changed on Monday, as a better-than-expected start to corporate earnings season boosted investor confidence, but gains were curbed by a drop in commodities.

 

* Morgan Stanley touches 7-year high

* Gold touches 5-year low Copper, oil prices fall

* IBM falls in extended trade after earnings

Shares of technology companies were among the bright spots, helping the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite to its third straight record close as investor focus shifts to earnings from Greece and China. The top five boosts to the S& P 500 were from the tech sector.

Gold prices plunged to their lowest in more than five years while copper prices hit their lowest in nearly two weeks. Oil prices fell on signs of a growing glut in refined products to pull the S& P energy index down 1.3 percent.

The dollar index rose 0.17 percent to $98.04. It had earlier hit a three-month high due to expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike this year.

" You' ve got an interesting dynamic in the S& P 500, so you put Greece in the rear-view mirror and then have the first week of earnings end with a better-than-expected style, and that brings you back up to the top end of the range, or at least close to it," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

" But when you have commodity pressure, if you have energy down a full percentage point on the S& P today - that is going to be a tough hurdle to get over."

IBM lost 3.6 percent to $167.01 in extended trade after its quarterly results on Monday. Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft are due later this week.

So far, 70 percent of companies have reported earnings above analyst expectations, above the 63 percent average beat rate since 1994. Earnings are expected to decline 2.1 percent for the quarter, a modest improvement from the expected 3 percent fall on July 1.

However, 55 percent have topped revenue forecasts, below the 61 percent average beat rate since 2002. U.S. companies were expected to post their worst sales decline in nearly six years in the second quarter, in part due to the strong dollar that reduces the value of U.S. companies' overseas income.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.96 points, or 0.08 percent, to 18,100.41, the S& P 500 gained 1.64 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,128.28 and the Nasdaq Composite added 8.72 points, or 0.17 percent, to 5,218.86.

The S& P 500 is less than 3 points from its record close of 2,130.82 on May 21.

Morgan Stanley touched its highest level in seven years after the bank' s profit beat expectations. However, it relinquished gains and closed down 0.4 percent at $40.01.

NYSE declining issues outnumbered advancers 2,086 to 967, for a 2.16-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq, 1,935 issues fell and 893 advanced for a 2.17-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S& P 500 posted 43 new 52-week highs and 31 lows the Nasdaq Composite 121 new highs and 139 lows.

Volume was muted, with about 5.84 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.56 billion average so far this month, according to BATS Global Markets.

 

Source: @ANZ_WarrenHogan

As The Telegraph reports,  by the end of the first quarter this year,  Australia&rsquo s net foreign debt had climbed to a record $955bn, equal to an already unsustainable 60pc of gross domestic product, and is set to rise  as RBA' s bet that depreciation in the value of the country&rsquo s currency would help to offset the decline in its overbearing mining industry hasn&rsquo t happened to the extent they would have wished.



Furthermore, as UBS explains,  China' s real GDP growth cycles have become an increasingly important driver of Australia' s nominal GDP growth this last decade.  With iron ore and coal prices plumbing new record lows, a Chinese (real) economy firing on perhaps 1 cyclinder, and equity investors reeling from China' s collapse perhaps the situation facing Australia is more like Greece than many want to admit, as Gina Rinehart, Australia&rsquo s richest woman and matriarch of Perth&rsquo s Hancock mining dynasty stunned her workers this week:  accept a 10% pay cut or face redundancies.



The government in Canberra and the Reserve Bank of Australia,  The Telegraph explains,  had  bet that depreciation in the value of the country&rsquo s currency would help to offset the decline in its overbearing mining industry. However, that hasn&rsquo t happened to the extent they would have wished.

As UBS further explains,  China' s real GDP growth cycles have become an increasingly important driver of Australia' s nominal GDP growth this last decade.

Dow -0.19%  18,086.45  /  -33.80 
Nasdaq +0.91%  5,210.14  /  +46.96
S& P +0.11%  2,126.64  /  +2.35
 

Wall Street' s Nasdaq stock index ended at a record high on Friday on a rally in Google shares, while weak energy stocks and disappointing corporate results from companies such as Boeing and Volvo hit other European and U.S. indexes and the dollar rallied on strong U.S. inflation and housing data.

Google (GOOGL.O) surged 16.26 percent to end at an all-time high of $699.62, pushing the Nasdaq to a second straight record high. A 6.3 percent drop in Volvo (VOLVb.ST) shares and a halt to a Greece-driven relief rally stymied European shares, meanwhile, while a 1.1 percent drop in Boeing (BA.N) shares and a similar tumble in the S& P 500 energy index .SPNY weighed on the Dow and limited the S& P 500' s gains.

Energy stocks slid on the back of a drop in oil prices, which later rebounded from their lows. In Europe, oil and gas shares ended 0.52 percent lower .SXEP.

" Whenever we see oil tick down, people worry about global growth," said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management in New York. She added that earnings " have been a little bit of a touch-and-go situation."

Forecast-beating corporate reports from mobile network supplier Ericsson (ERICb.ST), appliance maker Electrolux (ELUXb.ST) and Swiss fragrance firm Givaudan (GIVN.VX) helped European shares close mostly flat.

The U.S. dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last up 0.29 percent on Friday and notched its strongest weekly gain since May, of about 2 percent.

MSCI' s all-country world equity index .MIWD00000PUS, was last down 0.05 percent at 431.96.

The S& P 500 .SPX closed up 0.11 percent, at 2,126.64 and the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI ended down 0.19 percent, at 18,086.45. The Nasdaq composite .IXIC ended up 0.91 percent, at 5,210.14.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 of top European shares closed down 0.01 percent at 1,608.59. The FTSEurofirst and Euro STOXX 50 indexes both remain up nearly 20 percent in 2015.

Strong U.S. consumer price index data, rebounding housing starts and surging building permits bolstered expectations that the Federal Reserve was moving closer to hiking interest rates, which buoyed the dollar.

" The focus is turning to the U.S. rate cycle, and (the market reckons) a September rate hike is still, if not probable, at least possible," RBC Capital Markets global head of FX strategy Adam Cole said.

The U.S. Treasury yield curve flattened on the outlook for higher rates. Yields move inversely to prices.

Spot gold prices XAU= fell more than 1 percent to their lowest since April 2010 of $1,130.70 an ounce, pressured by the strong dollar and increasing bets that the Fed will hike rates. U.S. August gold futures GCv1 settled down 1 percent at $1,131.90 an ounce.

Brent crude rose and U.S. futures dipped in choppy trading as expectations of increased exports from Iran capped prices and helped both contracts post their third consecutive weekly losses.

International benchmark Brent LCOc1 settled up 18 cents at $57.10 a barrel, while front-month U.S. crude futures CLc1 settled down 2 cents at $50.89.

 

 

Dow +0.39%  18,120.25  /  +70.08 
Nasdaq +1.26%  5,163.18  /  +64.24 
S& P +0.80%  2,124.29  /  +16.89

 

Wall Street ended stronger on Thursday, with the Nasdaq up more than 1 percent at a record high after earnings reports from eBay (EBAY.O) and Netflix (NFLX.O) boosted optimism.

Google' s shares jumped more than 13 percent after the bell following a better-than-expected profit report.

Sentiment was also bolstered after the Greek parliament voted in favor of austerity measures. Uninspiring quarterly reports from Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and UnitedHealth (UNH.N), however, capped gains on the Dow.

The S& P has surged almost 4 percent from eight days ago, when widespread fears about Greece and a Chinese stock selloff pushed the index to its lowest level since March.

" It just proves the U.S. market continues to be resilient in the face of what seems like an endless list of global worries," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 70.08 points, or 0.39 percent, to 18,120.25. The S& P 500 .SPX gained 16.89 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,124.29.

The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 64.24 points, or 1.26 percent, to end at 5,163.18, just beating its previous record-high close of 5,160.095 on June 23. The S& P was also near a record high.

Google' s Class A shares (GOOGL.O) jumped 13.5 percent to $683 after the web search leader posted a better-than-expected profit for the first time in six quarters.

That helped extend Thursday' s gains in Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures NQc1 to 1.7 percent from 1.1 percent just before Google reported, suggesting the Nasdaq Composite may open stronger on Friday and potentially extend its record.

Nine of the 10 major S& P 500 sectors were higher, with the utilities index' s .SPLRCU 1.54 percent advance leading the gainers. The materials index .SPLRCM was the lone laggard, down 0.24 percent.

The S& P 500 has recently traded at 16.8 times forward 12-months' earnings, above the 10-year average of 14.7 times, according to StarMine data.

Despite early, upbeat results this week, U.S. companies are expected to post their worst sales decline in nearly six years in the second quarter, while profit is expected to have fallen 2.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters estimates.

" What this season confirms is that we are in a modest growth and modest inflation environment," said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute in St. Louis.

Netflix surged 18.02 percent to a record high of $115.81 a day after reporting strong subscribers numbers.

Citigroup reported its highest quarterly profit in eight years. Its shares rose 3.77 percent to a six-and-a-half year high of $58.59.

EBay (EBAY.O) rose 3.39 percent to a record high of $65.59 after reporting better-than-expected quarterly profit and announcing the sale of its enterprise business.

But Goldman fell 0.84 percent after posting its smallest quarterly profit in nearly four years, while UnitedHealth fell 0.74 percent after missing analysts' cost estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered declines on the NYSE by 2,159 to 942 on the Nasdaq, 1,852 issues rose and 945 fell.

The S& P 500 posted 46 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows the Nasdaq Composite recorded 182 new highs and 63 new lows.

Volume was light, with about 5.6 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.6 billion average so far this month, according to BATS Global Markets.