Overview: the US stock market fell short of paring losses on Friday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling back into the red after a brief return to the positive territory late in the day, ending the session 14 points lower.
Defensive stocks rose while the US dollar strengthened to life the market, yet the disappointing quarterly reports from computer giant Dell (NYSE: DELL) and builder D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) proved to be too much to overcome, dragging the stocks down.
The broader S&P 500 index also trimmed early losses, but still ended 0.3% below the opening level, while the technology heavy Nasdaq composite lost 0.5%.
Asian markets were in a bullish mood on Monday morning with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbing 0.5%, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index inched 0.1% higher. The Japanese market was closed due to a holiday.
Oil prices recovered with January Brent Crude improving to US$78.18/barrel, while US light, sweet crude for January delivery rose to US$78.41/barrel.
Precious metals remained buoyant with gold reaching new highs at US$1,165/oz, while silver and platinum reached US$18.80/oz and US$1,465/oz respectively.
Base metals also improved as copper and nickel rose to US$3.15/lb and US$7.70/lb and zinc improved to US$1.03/lb.
The FTSE 100 is seen starting nearly 1% higher today after the late recovery on Wall Street on Friday and the buoyant start in Asia today. The blue chip index declined 0.3% on Friday, largely due to losses in the travel & leisure and commercial property sectors. Tour operators TUI Travel (LSE: TT) and Thomas Cook (LSE: TCG) emerged as the leading fallers in the index after downgrades from Morgan Stanley, shedding 4%. Property companies Segro (LSE: SGRO), Hammerson (LSE: HMSO), British Land (LSE: BLND) and Land Securities Group (LSE: LAND) followed with declines of over 2.5%.
Telecom company Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW), specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT) and insurer Old Mutual (LSE: OML) ended the day atop the leaderboard with gains of more than 1.5%. Pharmaceutical companies Shire (LSE: SHP) and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), chocolatier Cadbury (LSE: CBRY) and beverage group SABMiller (LSE: SAB) also did well, advancing about 1%.