End Of A Mixed Week With High And Lows

On 11.23.09, In Daily Briefings

With stocks falling on Friday the week ended on a low note with markets down for the most of week. The mood was clearly negative with investors not confident about the economy and the technology sector.

On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average declined by fell 14 points(0.1%) to end at 10,318.16 points. The S&P 500 declined by 0.3% to close at 1091.38 points. Nasdaq composite declined by 0.5% to close at 2146.04 points. In spite of Friday’s decline Dow closed with a 0.5% gain for the week. Other indices S&P and Nasdaq declined by 0.2% and 1% for the week.

Sector wise on Friday healthcare sector registered a growth of 0.6% mainly due to gain in pharmaceutical stocks by 1.2%. The other sectors that finished with gains were Utilities (gain of 0.2%) and consumer staples (gain of 0.1%).

Like on Thursday energy stocks lost the most on Friday closing with a decline of 0.9% due to drop in oil prices. The

other sectors which declined included technology (decline of 0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (decline of 0.6%), Financials (decline of 0.6%), Industrials (decline of 0.3%), Telecom (decline of 0.2%) and Materials (decline of 0.1%).

The week started with a positive note with the markets closing at 13 month high on Monday and Tuesday and with the S&P closing above the all important 1,100 mark. However the mood changed on Wednesday with the release of data showing a drop in new home construction and downgrading of semi conductor industry by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

As expected on Friday technology shares fell due to decline in income reported by Dell for the third quarter. Also homebuilder stocks came under pressure on Friday after US second largest home builder announced larger than expected quarterly loss and said conditions in the industry remain challenging.

Going ahead the markets are expected to be volatile in the coming week. Analyst feel that the market has increased too much without the right fundamentals and hence the fall reported is expected. Next week is going to be busy week with lot of economic data releases. Investors are in particular looking forward to data on home sales and prices, revised GDP number and monthly report on consumer confidence. Hewlett Packard is also expected to report its quarterly financial results on Monday.