US mkts closed flat with a positive bias – 22 April 2010

stocks struggled in the day amid worries about Greece & some weak corporate; Indian ADRs ended in green; Wipro up 2.04%

The US markets closed flat with a positive bias. Stocks had struggled in the day amid worries about Greece and some weak corporate.

But the market turned around in early afternoon trading after the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said Greece was a unique case and that other countries that have been tossed around as “the next Greece” – Spain, Portugal and Italy – would avoid a debt crisis.

Consumer-discretionary stocks were the day’s best performer, along with materials and industrials. Meanwhile bank stocks finished mixed as President Obama called on Wall Street to abandon its opposition to financial reforms. The senate could begin debating financial reform next week.

At the end of trade the Dow Jones closed 9 points higher at 11,134, the S&P 500 shut shop at 1,208, while the Nasdaq ended at 2,519.

In economic news, weekly initial jobless claims were slightly higher than expected at 456,000 and continuing claims were worse than expected at 4.65 million.

Existing home sales saw a stronger-than-expected 6.8% increase in March. Meanwhile, producer prices increased 0.7% in March, but core producer prices were up a tepid 0.1%.

The dollar rose to a near one-year high against the euro after the European union said Greece’s budget deficit was worse than feared and Moody’s cut its rating of Greek government debt. Spreads between Greek and German bond yields hits the widest in 12 years and the cost of insuring Greek debt from default surged to record highs.

In commodities, crude prices reversed earlier losses to trade above the $ 83 mark.

Indian ADRs ended in green on Thursday. In IT space, Wipro was up 2.04% at $ 24.01, Infosys was up 1.09% at $ 62.24 and Patni Computers was up 1.02% at $ 25.69 while Satyam Computers was flat at $ 5.44.

In Banking space, HDFC Bank was up 1.41% at $ 149.9 and ICICI Bank was up 1.03% at $ 43.02. In Telecom space, Tata Communication was up 0.49% at $ 12.41 and MTNL was up 0.3% at $ 3.31.

In other sectors, Dr Reddy’s Labs was up 1.33% at $ 26.72 and Tata Motors was up 0.86% at $ 20.03 while Sterlite Industries was down 0.61% at $ 17.93.

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