ECB keep their rate at 4 percent
Global Market
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is cutting deeper into its ranks, eliminating posts in its mortgage and investment banking units as the credit contraction saps demand. They said that it was eliminating as much as 5 percent of its employees in January to weed out underperformers but they declined to quantify the latest reductions.
Wall Street firms may have to eliminate as much as 35 percent of employees as leveraged lending dwindles and the pace of mergers and acquisitions slows.
Deutsche Bank AG eliminated 80 jobs at its corporate-finance unit. The job cuts mostly affect analysts and associates from the advisory, commercial real-estate, equity capital markets and leveraged finance groups. The unit has about 4,400 employees.
Mergers and acquisitions announced so far this year are worth a total of $776 billion, down last year. Goldman's told shareholders that the M&A business is down quite a lot but they remains optimistic about the business.
The credit-market crisis is closer to the end than the beginning. Analyst said they expects the U.S. economy will be on a growth curve again by the end of the year.
Stock Market
U.S. stocks rose on improved forecasts for technology company earnings and higher sales at discount retailers.
Intel Corp. led semiconductor shares rose after analysts said they will boost profitability and buy back stock. Cisco Systems Inc. rallied after Morgan Stanley said revenue may top estimates. Wal- Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. advanced as consumers sought discounts on food and electronics.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 6.06 to 1,360.55. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.72 to 12,581.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 29.58 to 2,351.7.
Shares also gained after report said jobless claims decreased more than forecast. Earnings at companies in the index are expected to fall 11.3 percent in the first quarter before rebounding to increase 13.9 percent.
Wal-Mart gained 52 cents to $54.66. March sales advanced 0.7 percent and they increased its earning forecast to 74 to 76 cents a share, compared with an earlier forecast of 70 to 74 cents. Costco rose 49 cents to $66.52 after March sales increased 7 percent.
Cisco climbed 51 cents to $24.04. Morgan Stanley said Cisco may beat analysts' revenue estimates.
Intel is adding 66 cents to $22.08. Their rank was raised to buy on forecast that the stock may climb 26 percent as the company wins customers from rivals, boosts profitability and buys back its own stock.
LSI Corp. increased 27 cents to $5.61 after analyst lifted its rating to neutral. Analyst said competition and a slowing economy reflected in the stock price.
Financial stocks pared declines after Goldman Sachs Group said the crisis may be approaching an end. Citigroup Inc. added 13 cents to $23.71. Wachovia Corp. jumped $1.25 to $27.87. Goldman slipped $3.59 to $170.55. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. lost 29 cents to $40.25. They liquidated three investment funds because of market disruptions.
Lehman also bailed out five short-term debt funds as it crippled by frozen credit markets.
Yahoo! Inc. gained 82 cents to $28.59. They are resisting a $44.6 billion takeover by Microsoft Corp. It may wring a higher offer after finding an alternate suitor in Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit. News Corp. may join Microsoft's offer. Microsoft gained 22 cents to $29.11. News Corp. shares lost 5 cents to $18.89 and Time Warner rose 18 cents to $14.61.
DuPont Co. gained 60 cents to $49.64. Their earnings climbed to $1.29 a share, topping company forecasts, as record crop prices boosted sales of seeds and pesticides to farmers.
Lexmark International Inc. rallied $2.55 to $32.91 after Lehman said profit may top analysts' projections. Analyst boosted first-quarter earnings forecast to 96 cents a share from 82 cents. CIT Group Inc. fell 70 cents to $12.36 on concern that first-quarter earnings may be worse than expected. Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. is soaring $7.99 to $24.34. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. agreed to buy the company for $8.8 billion, or $25 a share.
Currencies
The dollar traded near to record low against the euro amid speculation that the Group of Seven are unlikely to agree to support the U.S. currency.
The greenback gained the most against Euro after European Central Bank expressed concern about exchange- rate volatility. The euro had reached a record earlier in the day, before the ECB left its key rate at a six-year high 4 percent. The dollar traded at $1.5743. The U.S. currency traded at 101.76 yen.
A weaker dollar has helped boost U.S. exports and support growth as the economy risks lapsing into a recession. The Group of Seven hasn't intervened in currency markets since 2000.
The euro declined to 79.77 British pence after the Bank of England cut borrowing costs a quarter percentage point to 5 percent. It fell against major currencies.
The ECB has avoided rate cuts even concern deepened that the fallout from the U.S. subprime-mortgage crisis will spread to Europe. Consumer prices in the euro country rose 3.5 percent from last year.
Financial-market tension may have a broader impact on the real economy and ECB is more concerned about the excessive volatility of exchange rates.
Commodities
Oil
Crude oil fell on signs that high prices and a slowing economy will curb fuel consumption. Gasoline use may drop this summer. Crude oil in New York rose to $112.21 a barrel yesterday after the U.S. reported an unexpected decline in inventories.
Crude oil for May delivery fell 76 cents to settle at $110.11 a barrel. Brent crude for May settlement declined 27 cents to settle at $108.20 a barrel.
Total U.S. fuel demand averaged 20.5 million barrels a day, down 0.4 percent from last year.
Oil prices also fell as the euro declined against the dollar. The dollar's drop has encouraged investors to buy commodities and made oil cheaper for buyers in other currencies. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would provide consumers with more oil if the need existed.
Gold
Gold and silver fell as the euro dropped against the dollar on speculation a slumping European economy may spur a cut in borrowing costs. The euro declined 0.7 percent versus the dollar. ECB kept its benchmark rate at 4 percent and signaled growth is moderating.
Gold futures for June delivery fell $5.70 to $931.80 an ounce. Silver futures for May delivery dropped 15.7 cents to $18.043 an ounce.
The ECB has kept rates unchanged helping to boost the euro to a record $1.5913. The Bank of England lowered its rate to 5 percent. The U.S. and U.K. central banks have been cutting rates as a housing slump and credit-market turmoil threatened to push the economies into a recession. The ECB has resisted rate reductions in order to cap inflation.
Gold may decline as the Fed slows the pace of rate cuts and the ECB considers lowering its benchmark.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is cutting deeper into its ranks, eliminating posts in its mortgage and investment banking units as the credit contraction saps demand. They said that it was eliminating as much as 5 percent of its employees in January to weed out underperformers but they declined to quantify the latest reductions.
Wall Street firms may have to eliminate as much as 35 percent of employees as leveraged lending dwindles and the pace of mergers and acquisitions slows.
Deutsche Bank AG eliminated 80 jobs at its corporate-finance unit. The job cuts mostly affect analysts and associates from the advisory, commercial real-estate, equity capital markets and leveraged finance groups. The unit has about 4,400 employees.
Mergers and acquisitions announced so far this year are worth a total of $776 billion, down last year. Goldman's told shareholders that the M&A business is down quite a lot but they remains optimistic about the business.
The credit-market crisis is closer to the end than the beginning. Analyst said they expects the U.S. economy will be on a growth curve again by the end of the year.
Stock Market
U.S. stocks rose on improved forecasts for technology company earnings and higher sales at discount retailers.
Intel Corp. led semiconductor shares rose after analysts said they will boost profitability and buy back stock. Cisco Systems Inc. rallied after Morgan Stanley said revenue may top estimates. Wal- Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. advanced as consumers sought discounts on food and electronics.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 6.06 to 1,360.55. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 54.72 to 12,581.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 29.58 to 2,351.7.
Shares also gained after report said jobless claims decreased more than forecast. Earnings at companies in the index are expected to fall 11.3 percent in the first quarter before rebounding to increase 13.9 percent.
Wal-Mart gained 52 cents to $54.66. March sales advanced 0.7 percent and they increased its earning forecast to 74 to 76 cents a share, compared with an earlier forecast of 70 to 74 cents. Costco rose 49 cents to $66.52 after March sales increased 7 percent.
Cisco climbed 51 cents to $24.04. Morgan Stanley said Cisco may beat analysts' revenue estimates.
Intel is adding 66 cents to $22.08. Their rank was raised to buy on forecast that the stock may climb 26 percent as the company wins customers from rivals, boosts profitability and buys back its own stock.
LSI Corp. increased 27 cents to $5.61 after analyst lifted its rating to neutral. Analyst said competition and a slowing economy reflected in the stock price.
Financial stocks pared declines after Goldman Sachs Group said the crisis may be approaching an end. Citigroup Inc. added 13 cents to $23.71. Wachovia Corp. jumped $1.25 to $27.87. Goldman slipped $3.59 to $170.55. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. lost 29 cents to $40.25. They liquidated three investment funds because of market disruptions.
Lehman also bailed out five short-term debt funds as it crippled by frozen credit markets.
Yahoo! Inc. gained 82 cents to $28.59. They are resisting a $44.6 billion takeover by Microsoft Corp. It may wring a higher offer after finding an alternate suitor in Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit. News Corp. may join Microsoft's offer. Microsoft gained 22 cents to $29.11. News Corp. shares lost 5 cents to $18.89 and Time Warner rose 18 cents to $14.61.
DuPont Co. gained 60 cents to $49.64. Their earnings climbed to $1.29 a share, topping company forecasts, as record crop prices boosted sales of seeds and pesticides to farmers.
Lexmark International Inc. rallied $2.55 to $32.91 after Lehman said profit may top analysts' projections. Analyst boosted first-quarter earnings forecast to 96 cents a share from 82 cents. CIT Group Inc. fell 70 cents to $12.36 on concern that first-quarter earnings may be worse than expected. Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. is soaring $7.99 to $24.34. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. agreed to buy the company for $8.8 billion, or $25 a share.
Currencies
The dollar traded near to record low against the euro amid speculation that the Group of Seven are unlikely to agree to support the U.S. currency.
The greenback gained the most against Euro after European Central Bank expressed concern about exchange- rate volatility. The euro had reached a record earlier in the day, before the ECB left its key rate at a six-year high 4 percent. The dollar traded at $1.5743. The U.S. currency traded at 101.76 yen.
A weaker dollar has helped boost U.S. exports and support growth as the economy risks lapsing into a recession. The Group of Seven hasn't intervened in currency markets since 2000.
The euro declined to 79.77 British pence after the Bank of England cut borrowing costs a quarter percentage point to 5 percent. It fell against major currencies.
The ECB has avoided rate cuts even concern deepened that the fallout from the U.S. subprime-mortgage crisis will spread to Europe. Consumer prices in the euro country rose 3.5 percent from last year.
Financial-market tension may have a broader impact on the real economy and ECB is more concerned about the excessive volatility of exchange rates.
Commodities
Oil
Crude oil fell on signs that high prices and a slowing economy will curb fuel consumption. Gasoline use may drop this summer. Crude oil in New York rose to $112.21 a barrel yesterday after the U.S. reported an unexpected decline in inventories.
Crude oil for May delivery fell 76 cents to settle at $110.11 a barrel. Brent crude for May settlement declined 27 cents to settle at $108.20 a barrel.
Total U.S. fuel demand averaged 20.5 million barrels a day, down 0.4 percent from last year.
Oil prices also fell as the euro declined against the dollar. The dollar's drop has encouraged investors to buy commodities and made oil cheaper for buyers in other currencies. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would provide consumers with more oil if the need existed.
Gold
Gold and silver fell as the euro dropped against the dollar on speculation a slumping European economy may spur a cut in borrowing costs. The euro declined 0.7 percent versus the dollar. ECB kept its benchmark rate at 4 percent and signaled growth is moderating.
Gold futures for June delivery fell $5.70 to $931.80 an ounce. Silver futures for May delivery dropped 15.7 cents to $18.043 an ounce.
The ECB has kept rates unchanged helping to boost the euro to a record $1.5913. The Bank of England lowered its rate to 5 percent. The U.S. and U.K. central banks have been cutting rates as a housing slump and credit-market turmoil threatened to push the economies into a recession. The ECB has resisted rate reductions in order to cap inflation.
Gold may decline as the Fed slows the pace of rate cuts and the ECB considers lowering its benchmark.
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