US Markets Snapshot:
US market rally as Bush Admin expanded its bailout to the auto industry by bailing out General Motors' finance arm, market shrugged poor economic data. Dow Jones ends up 185 points (2.2%) at 8668.4, NASDAQ up 40.4 points (2.7%) at 1550.7, S&P 500 up 21.2 points (2.4%) at 890.6. Dow Jones is down nearly 35% YTD till yesterday close, which is likely to be its worst year since 1931. YTD: Worst performing sector in US was financials sector which plunged nearly 60%, best performing sector was consumer staples which lost 18%. YTD: Crude oil is down nearly 60% for the year. For the fifth straight session less than 1 billion shares traded hands on the NYSE. US markets will be closed tomorrow for New Year's day.
Asian markets trade mixed; Hang Seng up 1.2%, Jakarta up 1%, Thailand up 0.7%, Shanghai down 0.6%. Japanese & Korean stock markets are closed today and will reopen on Jan. 5; Hang Seng, Singapore will trade for a shortened session. CBOE VIX ends down 5.2% at 41.63; has tumbled from 52-week high of 89.5 on 24-Oct.
Commodities/ Currencies:
Crude oil ends down nearly 2% around $ 39/bbl, was trading down nearly 5% at one point in the day. Gold trades unchanged around $ 872/ounce.
Currencies:
Dollar appreciates 7 bps against Euro around 1.4093. Yen traded unchanged against dollar around 90.325. Dollar has fallen nearly 20% against Yen YTD, which is biggest fall since 1987.
US Stocks In News: General Motors ends up +5.5%, US treasury puts $ 5 billion in GMAC via senior preferred equity, and increased loan to GM by $ 1 billion. Ford Motor gained 3.2%. Alcoa gained nearly 10%, scheduled to report 4Q results on Jan 12. Rohm & Haas gained over 10%, speculation that Dow Chemical will be forced to complete its acquisition.
Global News:
Fed appoints BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Pimco and Wellington Mgt to manage $ 500 billion purchase of mortgage-backed securities.
US Economic Data:
Consumer confidence fell to a record low in December. S&P Case-Shiller home-price index plunged by a record 18% in October.
Data To Watch
Weekly mortgage applications
Weekly jobless claims
Weekly crude and natural-gas inventories
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