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wall st still booming but oil price now taking its (IE) Wall St still booming but oil price now taking its toll
RWE News
9:31:020 22/04/2006
Sydney - Saturday - April 22: (RWE Aust Business News) Wall
Street posted a six year high on the week after the Dow crept over the
line with 5 points on the latest session.
The key barometer added 210 or 1.9 per cent over the five trading
days with US markets working the Easter Monday.
The S&P 500 managed 22 points or 1.7pc on the week but ended the
session in negative territory with a fall of less than a point.
The Nasdaq composite rose 17 points or 0.7pc on the week
while the 100 index dropped 3 over the same period.
The oil price was the major factor in subdued equity markets
overnight.
Investors were starved of economic data but concentrated on
another big push in metals as prices rebounded to near records.
The surge of another $1.48 to $75.17 on the June crude contract
left Wall St with hardly a feather to fly with.
Technology traders were uncertain as traders faced EBay talking
to both Yahoo and Microsoft about the possibility of working together to
thwart growing competition from Google.
Google's profit climbed 60% and revenue surged 79% on strong Web
advertising and global growth.
Analysts are now seriously worried about the fallout from the
soarin oil price which is already having an impact on the pattern of
consumer spending and triggering the prospect of a jump in inflation.
This is turn is likely to keep the Fed lifting interest rates
after hints at the last FOMC meeting Minutes that the rising interest
rate cycle was coming to an end.
The oil price is also causing corporate uncertainty which has
already seen some good quarterly profit results.
However, the Iran situation is worsening with traders speculation
whether the world's fourth biggest oil exporter might retaliate against
the west by reducing prices and sending prices rocketing in response to
talk of US military intervention to stop its nuclear research program.
So far Iran has been intractable on the issue of compliance with
UN Security Council demands.
US President George W. Bush has vowed to stop Iran from getting
atomic weapons and has refused to rule out military options, including
tactical nuclear strikes, if diplomacy fails.
Treasury debt prices continued to show volatility, moving in both
directions with little data to drive trading.
The 10 year cash paper yield fell 4 points to 5.01 per cent while
the 30 year bond yield lost 5 points to 5.10 per cent.
In contrast the 2 year note yield edged up a point to 4.90 per
cent.
Investors are waiting for next week's message to Congress from
new Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
Financial markets are not expecting any clear cut insights into
whether the central bank is likely to stop raising interest rates soon.
In the market Ford reported a $1.19 billion loss, as revenue fell
9% and the auto maker started a massive North American restructuring.
The gold price rose $12.40 to $632.20 oz on the COMEX spot month
while the Aussie dollar gained on the metals rebound, adding more than
half a cent to US74.46c in New York trading overnight.

Key New York indices mixed
--------------------------

Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 4.56 to
11347.45.
Dow range for the session was 11,405.88 high and 11,316.79 low.
The Dow components were 17 falls and 13 rises.

Standard and Poors 500 index eased 0.18 to 1311.28.
The Nasdaq Composite index fell 19.69 to 2342.86 and the Nasdaq
100 index dropped 19.88 to 1709.02
Volume on the NYSE amounted to 2.4 billion trades while the
NASDAQ posted 2.3 billion sales.
Dow falls included Intel Colrp 39c or 2.01pc to 19.06, Hewlett
Packard 85c or 2.51pc to 32.96, General Motors 85c or 3.75pc to 21.79,
McDonalds 48c or 1.37pc to 34.60 and Walt Disney 32 or 1.17pc to 27.02.
Among the Dow rises were 3M Company 2.46 or 2.98pc to 85.06,
Alcoa 62c or 1.78pc to 35.39, Exxon 1.08 or 1.69pc to 65.00, Boeing 96c
Shares of Microsoft added 12 cents or 0.44pc to 27.15, while Yahoo
fell 48 cents, or 1.4%, to 32.89, and eBay slumped 1.73, or 4.7%, to
35.04.
Dell lost 1.23 to 27.01 after Citigroup downgraded shares of the
world's largest personal-computer maker, marking the first sell rating
since at least 1996 among major Wall Street investment banks.
Ford Motor fell 63c or 7.9%, to 7.32 after it swung to a $1.19
billion loss in the first quarter, as revenue fell and the company
started a massive and costly North American restructuring effort. The
auto maker reported a net loss of 64 cents a share, compared with net
income of 60 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Ford took a $2.5
billion pretax restructuring charge.
McDonald's eased 48c or 1.37pc to 34.60 after the fast-food giant
said first-quarter net income fell 14% to $625.3 million, or 49 cents a
share, including items which produced a net charge of one cent a share.
Revenue for the quarter rose 6.2% to $5.1 billion.
Shares of 3M rose 2.46, or 3%, to 85.06. The company said
earnings beat projections, and it boosted its forecast for the full year.
First-quarter net income rose to $899 million, or $1.17 a share, from
$771 million, or 97 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales rose 8.3% to
$5.56 billion.
Petrohawk Energy was down 66c or 4.9pc to 12.92, while KCS Energy
surged 1.27, or 4.4pc to 29.93. Petrohawk will buy KCS in a $1.6 billion
cash-and-stock deal, bringing together two Houston oil companies with
overlapping properties in emerging natural-gas fields in northern
Louisiana and East Texas.