Technology stocks take US Market higher

After disappointing reports from retailers, technology stocks provide the boost

It was another volatile day in US market. After witnessing sell-off in the first half of the day, stocks started focusing on better than expected earnings reports from various sectors and indices moved higher in the final hour of trading today, Tuesday, 23 October 2007. All the ten economic sectors posted gains today led by the technology and materials sector.

The Dow Jones industrial Average closed higher by 109 points at 13,676. The Nasdaq Composite Index, finished higher by 45 points at 2,799. S&P 500 finished higher by 13 points at 1,519.

American express, Du-Pont and AT&T led the team of Dow winners while 3M headed the list of Dow laggards.

In the early trading hours, a couple of disappointing reports from Target and Wal-Mart started a sell-off in the market. Wal-Mart said that it plans to trim capital expenditures for the current fiscal year more than forecast. On the other hand, Target lowered its third quarter guidance.

But then, there were quite a few big names that came out with blowout earnings reports. AT&T, Apple, American Express, Du-Pont, UPS - all declared earnings reports beating market expectations.

But it was mainly the technology stocks that led the indices higher for the day. Apple shares gained 6.8% after the company announced 67% growth in its Q4 earnings and attributed the same to solid iPod and iPhone sales. Amazon.com shares rallied by 10% and touched the $100 mark for the first time ahead of its third quarter result.

All Indian ADRs end in green – Satyam the main winner

Indian ADRs closed in the green today. Satyam was the top winner closing up by more than 12%. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank closed up by 7.7% and 6.7% respectively. Other top winners were MTNL and VSNL gaining 4.5% and 7.2% respectively.

Crude prices continued to drop today as traders speculated that Middle East tension between Turkey and Iraq had eased. Price also continued to drop after market expected that tomorrow’s weekly inventory report on crude and fuel products are expected to show a climb in inventories for week ended 19 October.

Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for December delivery closed at $85.27/barrel (lower by $0.75/barrel or 0.9%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 45% on a yearly basis. Last Friday (19 October) price had peaked to $90.02/barrel after dropping later in the day.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped 1.3 billion, and advancing stocks outran declining issues roughly 11 to 5. On the technology-laden Nasdaq, nearly 2.4 billion shares exchanged hands, and gainers outpaced decliners by 17 to 11.

Existing home sales data for September are expected tomorrow at 10.00 E.T followed by the weekly inventory report from the Energy Department. Other than that, Boeing and Merrill Lynch are scheduled to declare their earnings report before market opens.