US stocks ended in a mixed mode on Monday, 20 December 2010 with the Dow industrial being the only index failing to end in the green. Wall Street had opened modestly higher, as investors set aside tensions that had risen after South Korea staged military drills from an island not far from North Korea's shores, and took hopes from a slate of merger activity.
For the day, that ended on Monday, 20 December 2010, Dow ended lower by 13.78 points (0.12%) at 11,478.13. Nasdaq ended higher by 6.59 points (0.25%) at 2,649.76. S&P 500 ended higher by 3.17 points (0.25%) at 1,247.08.
Nine out of ten economic sectors ended higher led by energy, telecom and consumer discretionary sectors. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and AT&T led the Dow gainers. American Express, Boeing and Intel led the pack of Dow decliners.
Sara Lee was in news today following reports that indicated the company's sale of itself to Brazilian meat company JBS SA was on hold after the two sides failed to agree on a price. The stock shook off the news and closed higher by 2.4%.
American Express led Dow decliners after Stifel Nicolaus & Co. downgraded the charge-card issuer to hold from buy, citing a drag from the Federal Reserve's plans to force reduction in debit-card interchange fees. Read more in Financial Stocks. Boeing was the second hardest hit among the blue chips, on concern the aerospace manufacturer might again delay its 787 Dreamliner. Intel dropped after The Wall Street Journal reported that European regulators were reviewing the chip maker's proposed acquisition of McAfee Inc.
Crude prices ended higher on Monday, 20 December 2010 at Nymex. Prices rose despite a strong dollar. Extreme cold weather in parts of US together with Europe rose demand hopes for oil and oil products in the coming days. Anticipation of higher travel in Christmas holidays also pushed prices higher. On Monday, crude oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed higher by $0.79 (0.9%) at $88.81/barrel.
January natural gas ended up 17 cents, or 4.2%, at $4.24 per million British thermal units.
In the currency market on Monday, the dollar ran to its session high just following the open of U.S. equities and remained range between 80.55 and 80.70 for most of the session.
Precious metals ended higher on Monday, 20 December 2010 at Comex. Prices rose despite the dollar staying strong. Investors bought gold and other precious metals as a hedge against military tensions on the Korean peninsula and ongoing concerns about European sovereign debt.
On Monday, gold for February delivery ended at $1,386.1 an ounce, higher $6.9 (0.5%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched a high of $1,388.9 during intra day trading. Last week, gold had struck a new all time high of $1,416.1. Last week, gold ended lower by 0.4% on a weekly basis. On Monday, December Comex silver futures ended higher by $0.22 (0.8%) at $29.36. Prices gained 1.8% last week. It gained 15% in November.
Decliners edged past advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume topped 829 million shares.
Indian ADRs ended mixed on Monday. Dr Reddys and HDFC Bank were the main losers shedding 3.5% and 2.1% respectively. Wipro gained 0.5%.
Tomorrow, no economic data is expected. But the week's economic calendar is full, with existing home sales and the third estimate for third quarter GDP on Wednesday and durable orders, personal income/spending and new home sales on Thursday.
