Traders-Blog.com

Today, U.S. stocks finished session low due to an increase in the price of oil, and also amid concerns of rising interest rates. The Dow fell 45.88 points, to close at 10,457.80. Also, the Nasdaq fell 11.50 points, to finish at 2,050.12. Meanwhile, the S&P closed at 1,190.01, after falling 4.06 points.

In a speech, Jack Guynn, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said that he believes that the current solid growth, and increase in business’ spending, suggests that the economy has “ample strength to withstand further removal of accommodative monetary policy”. He also said that, the Fed’s goal is to return rates to “a so-called neutral levels”, so growth can continue without an increase in inflation.

Crude oil for July delivery rose for a third day, climbing 2.6 percent to $50.98 a barrel in New York. Also, the Energy Department showed that inventories unexpectedly fell last week. The decline in U.S crude oil supplies was the first in five weeks. The U.S uses about 10 percent of the world’s oil output to make gasoline. Gasoline demands peaks between the Memorial Day holiday, and Labor Day early September. According to a survey, a record 37.2 million Americans will take trips during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which shows an increase of 2.2 percent from the year 2004.

According to the Commerce Department, sales of new U.S houses remained almost unchanged in April, by only rising 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.316 million. On the other hand, the National Association of Realtors said that turnover of existing homes rose 4.5 percent to a record $7.18 million annual pace. In the past six months, sales have averaged a record 1.25 million annualized from last month.

Shares of Ford Motor Co. ended the session down 2 cents at $9.96 on the New York Stock Exchange. On the other hand, Visteon’s stock finished the session up 89 cents, at $7.16, after potential speculations of a deal with Ford. After the deal was announced, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said that Ford’s debt rating, which was recently downgraded to junk, will not be affected by the deal. Nevertheless, Fitch ratings agency moved its outlook on Visteon to positive from negative.

All the best,
Manuel Jesus-Backus
The Portfolio Crafter
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