The trading session on Wall Street began hesitantly yet again this week, having started trading on negative territory, but shortly afterwards the three main index gave up. Data today showed that U.S. consumers are reticent in their purchases, in 2009 retail sales in the U.S. recorded a record fall within one calendar year from 6.2 percent. The index of blue chip Dow Jones IA increased by 0.1% to 10 694.37 points about an hour and a half after the start of trade. It reached its highest level since early October 2008 at the end of yesterday’s session, supported by a solid economic report from the U.S. Federal Reserve. S & P 500 added 0.1 percent to 1 146.3 points and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.2 percent to up 2 313.4 points. Before the start of trading session showed that retail sales unexpectedly decreased in the United States by 0.3 percent on a monthly basis in December and initial claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected by 11 thousand to 444 thousand for the week to 9th January. The number of persons receiving unemployment benefits for more than two weeks, reduced with 211 thousand to 4,6 million people. After the end of today’s session did expect the financial performance of the technology company Intel, which participates in the index, Dow Jones IA. Market analysts predict a substantial increase in earnings per share to 30 cents in the last quarter of 2009 compared to earnings of 4 cents a year ago, cited by CNN. Shares of Intel Increase 1.4% to 21.26 dollars per share.
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After a sharp correction in the middle of this week’s indexes in Asia and the Pacific again took over, supported by solid data on the growth of jobs in the economy of Australia. Stock market optimism was supported by the latest Economic Report of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which showed that the U.S. economy has improved in most regions of the country. The regional index MSCI Asia Pacific, which covers the securities markets in ten Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand, advanced 1 percent to 125.93 points. Extractive companies helped most to its present stature against the backdrop of rising metal prices. Banks that yesterday was the main subject of sales, also ranked among the most profitable companies in the index. Thus, financial and resource companies contributed to half of today’s growth MSCI Asia Pacific. Regional stock measure, which advanced for the fourth time in five days, rose by 45 percent within the past 12 months. During today’s session it became clear that Australian employers have discovered more than 35 thousand new jobs in December, cited by Bloomberg. This was over three times more than analysts’ forecasts and indicates that the Australian economy continues on the path of sustainable development. The unemployment rate in Australia has fallen from 5.6 percent in November to 5.5 percent in December.
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