US markets ended near day’s low; Asia opens lower

US market ended near days low on continued concerns of bank’s stess test results & spread of Swine Flu. Base metals witnessed sell off on Swine Flu worries. Swine Flu has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and spread to the United States and Canada. There are market talks that the stress-test results showed one bank will require additional capital.
Dow Jones ended down 52 points at 8025, slips nearly 100 points from days high of 8123. Nasdaq ended down 15 points at 1680, slips nearly 20 points from days high of 1700 while S&P 500 ended down 8.7 points at 856, slips nearly 13 points from days high of 869. US Financial sector ended down 3.2%. In Europe, CAC ended flat, DAX was up 0.4% and FTSE was up 0.27%. CBOE VIX rose 4.1% to 38.32.Asian markets open the Tuesday session mostly lower after the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert level for an outbreak of Swine Flu.China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.36% or 8.68 points at 2,396.67. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted fell 0.56% or 31.87 points at 5,673.18. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.37% or 203.27 points at 15,043.69.Global movers & shakers:Airline stocks hit due to swine flu. Amex Airline was down 10.5%, UAL Corp was down 14.3%, Continental Airlines was down 16.4%. GM surged 20% on restructuring news via phasing out Pontiac brand & offered government GM stock in exchange for half of its debt which will help to avoid bankruptcy. Pharma stocks gain, GlaxoSmithKline was up 7.5% and Roche was up 3.5%. Qualcomm was up 4.4%, the company reported quarterly loss, but raised its full-year revenue target.Commodities:Nymex June ends down 3% at $ 50/bbl; hit intra-day low of $ 48/bbl. OPEC compliace at 83% of agreed 4.2 million bpd cut. Gold off 3 week highs, ends down 0.6% at $ 908/ounce. Base Metals witnessed sell off. Copper was down 3.5% at 3 week lows of $ 4252/ton. Aluminium declines 2% on record inventories at 3.7 million tons. Lead declined 7% on strong buildup in inventories. Nickel, Zinc declined 4%.Currencies:USD up 1.8% Vs Euro.

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