The US markets hit a fresh 15-month closing high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 53.5 points at 10,680.7. The Nasdaq Composite was up 26 points at 2,308 and the S&P 500 up 9.5 points at 1,146. NYSE- Advance: Decline ratio was at 3:1. US financial sector recovered from a 0.5% loss to a 1.2% gain. In US advancing sectors, Health Care was up 1.3%; Financials was up 1.2% and Technology was up 1%.
Asian markets gained on Thursday morning. The Nikkei 225, Hang Seng, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted went up nearly 1%. Straits Times was up 0.7%. Shanghai Composite was flat and SGX Nifty rose 0.3%. European markets ended flat. The CAC was up 0.02% and DAX up 0.34% while FTSE was down 0.46%. CBOE VIX was down 2.2% at 17.85.
Global News:
US budget deficit came in at $91.85 billion in December, record 15th straight month of government red ink. Fed’s Beige Book stated that economic activity is still low, but improving.
Commodity:
Crude was down 1.4% to $ 79.65 a barrel on Wednesday. It declined for fourth day and was trading at 2-week lows. US Crude oil inventories snapped 5-week decline and rose by 3.7 million barrels. Gold gained 0.7% to $ 1137 an ounce. Silver was up 1.6% to $ 18.55 an ounce. Baltic Dry Index was up 0.5%. Copper closed up 1% at $ 7485/tonne. Aluminium was up 1.5% to $ 2295/tonne. Zinc rose 1% to $ 2500/tonne.
Currencies:
Dollar Index declined 0.5%. Dollar was down 44 bps versus Euro at 1.453. Yen depreciated 40 bps versus USD at 91.4.
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