US markets ended modestly higher

The US markets ended modestly higher yesterday after a bout of profit taking early on. Gains were led by banks. The KBW banking index logged a 3.1% gain.

On the economic front, the new home sales in June rose the most in more than eight years. Sales spiked 11% to hit a better-than-expected annualised rate of 3.84 lakh units.

Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman said that, “Our projections suggest that the unemployment rate will probably keep rising, probably a bit above 10%. It will peak early in 2010 and then begin gradually to come down. We could be wrong. It could be a stronger recovery than that. But, you are absolutely right that even after the economy starts to grow again, and we are hoping to see that in the next third and fourth quarters, it will be a while before the labour market, the job market is back to where we want it to be.”

At closing bell, the Dow Jones rose 15.27 points, or 0.2%, to 9,108.51. The S&P 500 index rose 2.92 points, or 0.3%, to 982.18, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.93 points, or 0.1%, to 1,967.89.

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