Overview: the US market was under pressure form the unexpected decline in consumer confidence, as the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slid to three month lows at 47.7 from 53.4 as the outlook for the job market remained cloudy and consumers were rather pessimistic about their future earnings, making them likely to spend less.
However, another update released yesterday showed an increase in housing prices in the US, marking the fourth straight month of growth. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller reported showed a 1.2% improvement in an index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas in August, which, however, was slightly lower than the 1.6% increase in July.
Computer giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) buoyed the market with a gain of about 1% after announcing plans to repurchase US$% billion worth of its shares.
Key US stock market indexes were mixed after absorbing the mixed data.
The Dow Jones industrial average tacked on 0.1% and the S&P 500 improved 0.3%, yet the technology focused Nasdaq composite declined 1.2%.
Asian markets continued their decline with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sliding 1.66% in early trade, while Nikkei hit two week lows after dropping 1.4%. However, China’s Shanghai composite index managed to stay positive and tack on about 0.3%.
The US Dollar has retreated from recent highs, which sent commodity prices sliding, as the US index declined to 75.80 from yesterday’s level of 79.85.
However, oil prices didn’t grow much stronger as a result with US benchmark crude sliding to US$79.42/barrel, while December Brent Crude held steady at US$77.68/barrel.
Gold also declined, sliding further to US$1,039/oz. Silver retreated to US$16.67/oz, but Platinum managed to recoup some of its recent losses, adding US$8 to move up to US$1,321/oz.
Base metals showed slight improvement as Copper climbed to US$2.99/pound and Nickel improved to US$8.47/pound. Zinc, however, was in decline, sliding to US$1.02/pound.
Following yesterday’s modest gains, the FTSE 100 is projected to start slightly lower today ahead of quarterly result from pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) and oil and gas company BG Group (LSE: BG).
Morning news wrap
In the FTSE 100, parent company of British Gas Centrica (LSE: CNA) announced plans to invest £725 million to build a 270MW (megawatt) offshore wind farm.
Insurer Prudential (LSE: PRU) said group wide sales in Q3 amounted to £699 million, representing a 10% year on year increase, while US retail sales were up 66%.
In the FTSE 250, Dana Petroleum (LSE: DNX) reported an oil discovery at its Jetta prospect offshore Norway.
In the AIM, Philippines focused gold producer Medusa Mining (AIM&ASX: MML) reported a record gold production of 18,054 oz (ounces), up from 16,009 oz in the previous quarter, revising its full year production forecast to 86,000 oz from 82,000 oz.
Europe focused oil and gas developer Ascent Resources (AIM: AST) has commenced the drilling of the Fontana-1 well, which is designed to appraise the shallow part of the Anagni structure in the Frosinone exploration permit in the Latina Valley.
Mobile email and data synchronisation group Synchronica PLC (AIM: SYNC) has signed a licensing agreement with a mobile software vendor worth an initial EUR175,000 for the use of its non-core legacy software.