Some of the Christmas cheer came out of the market on
Wednesday as a pullback that began last week just below 1,450 in
the S&P gained a little steam on the day. Investor anxiety
appears to be centered around the fiscal cliff, but a
less-than-stellar retail holiday season and the ongoing drama of
the European sovereign debt crisis are also topics to keep an eye
on heading into the New Year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a little more than 24
points to close at 13,114. The widely watched blue-chip index
traded in a range between 13,076 and 13,175.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:
SPY
) fell 0.45 percent to close the session at $141.71. Volume was
much lighter than normal with around 77 million SPY shares
trading hands compared to a three month daily average of 137
million.
The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:
QQQ
), which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, lost 0.88
percent to trade near $64.50. The QQQ has registered a gain of
roughly 15.50 percent in 2012.
Crude oil was strongly higher on Wednesday as the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard began a series of war game exercises in the
Persian Gulf on Tuesday. NYMEX crude futures, the U.S. benchmark,
were last trading up 2.80 percent to $91.09. Brent crude
contracts, which are the primary benchmark for European oil, had
added 2.44 percent to trade at $111.45. In ETF trading, the
United States Oil Fund (NYSE:
USO
) closed the equity session with a gain of 2.79 percent to
$33.14.
Precious metals recorded small gains on Wednesday despite the
lower stock market. COMEX gold futures were last up 0.07 percent
to $1,660.60 while silver futures had added 0.41 percent to
$30.02. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF (NYSE:
GLD
) closed the equity session with a gain od 0.11 percent to
$160.80.
Treasury prices closed the day higher on some risk aversion in
other areas of the market. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury
Bond ETF (NYSE:
TLT
) climbed 0.36 percent to $122.20. The yield on the 10-Year Note
fell 3 basis points to 1.75 percent.
The U.S. dollar was essentially flat on the day. The
PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE:
UUP
), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket
of foreign currencies, fell 0.02 percent. The closely watched
EUR/USD pair was last up 0.30 percent to $1.3220.
(c) 2012 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
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