DJI- NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed flat on Friday even though investors welcomed Spain's efforts to seek a bailout and cheered Apple's newest iPhone that went on sale today, driving its shares to a record high.
Apple Inc AAPL.O, the world's most valuable public company in terms of market capitalization, jumped to an all-time high of $705.07 as customers lined up to buy the iPhone 5. Apple's stock ended up 0.2 percent at $700.10. [ID:L4E8KL3G1]
News from Spain helped lift stocks after the debt-laden country said it was considering freezing pensions and speeding up a planned rise in the retirement age as it raced to cut spending and meet conditions of an expected international sovereign aid package. (Full Story)
The moves, taken with the European Central Bank's efforts to spur growth in the euro zone and the Fed's recent announcement of a third round of quantitative easing, continued to underpin gains.
"The market is predominantly looking forward to the Federal Reserve and the QE infinity that the Fed promised, and the globally coordinated easing cycle," said Steve Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments in New York.
This week, though, the market's action has been muted, with the S&P 500 barely moving 0.6 percent in either direction daily.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI slipped 17.46 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 13,579.47. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX dipped just 0.11 of a point, or 0.01 percent, to finish at 1,460.15. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC rose 4.00 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 3,179.96.
Earlier, the S&P 500 hit an intraday high of 1,467.07, while the Nasdaq reached a session high of 3,196.93.
A quick and sharp sell-off in spot gold shortly after midday, driven by a rumor that the CME may raise margin requirements on commodities, weighed on financial services stocks, according to Joseph Greco, managing director of Meridian Equity Partners in New York.
Many banks and other companies in the financial sector have high exposure to gold and other commodities, so any increase in margin requirements would affect them, Greco said.
Spot gold XAU= later recovered to trade up 0.6 percent at $1,777.19 an ounce by 1:11 p.m. EDT on Friday, after hitting a session high of $1,787.20 - close to its 2012 high of $1,790.30.
But financial shares were still lower by late afternoon on Friday. The S&P financial index .GSPF ended down 0.3 percent.
The transportation sector limited the market's advance on Friday, when the Dow Jones Transportation Average .DJT fell 1 percent. Earlier this week, two large shipping companies - FedEx Corp. FDX.N and Norfolk Southern Corp. NSC.N - warned about the impact of the weakening world economy on their results.
At the close, FedEx shares slid 0.9 percent to $84.39 and Norfolk Southern shares lost 1.7 percent to $65. On Wednesday, a few brokerage firms cut their price targets on FedEx stock. On Friday, four brokers lowered their price targets on Norfolk Southern's stock.
The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX has gained 5.9 percent since the start of August, mostly on expectations for new economic stimulus measures from the world's central banks. On Sept. 13, the Federal Reserve announced a third round of stimulus or quantitative easing, known as Q3, intended to bolster the economy and reduce U.S. unemployment.
The market was more active than usual because of "quadruple witching," the quarterly settlement and expiration of four different types of September e q uity futures and options contracts. Expiration can lead to greater volume and volatility as players adjust or exercise their derivative positions.
"There was a little bit of a sell-off towards the close, but nothing crazy," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade. "There is not much volatility because the market has been trading in a pretty tight range most of the day, and it looks like most of the players have already rolled their positions over the last two weeks."
Looking ahead to quarterly earnings, one bright spot came from the fashion front. Shares of Michael Kors Holdings Ltd KORS.N shot up 9.3 percent to close at $57.35. The fashion and accessory designer's company said it will probably earn more than it expected in the second quarter as it banks on strong global sales.
Housing shares climbed, led by KB Home KBH.N, up 16.4 percent at $15.26, after the fifth-largest U.S. homebuilder reported a surprising quarterly profit and said its revenue backlog hit a four-year high. The PHLX housing sector index .HGX surged 1.74 percent. (Full Story)
Oracle Corp ORCL.O gained 0.7 percent to $32.47 a day after the software maker reported first-quarter earnings, excluding items, that met Wall Street's expectations. Oracle's hardware sales, however, are expected to drop further after tumbling 24 percent from a year ago. (Full Story).
Volume totalled 7.92 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the Amex.
Advancers beat decliners on both the NYSE and the Nasdaq by a ratio of 3 to 2. On the NYSE, there were 303 stocks hitting new highs and eight setting new lows. On the Nasdaq, 191 stocks touched new highs while 28 stocks reached new lows.
NYMEX- NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - U.S. November crude futures rose on Friday as delays in North Sea oil loadings stoked supply concerns and optimism over reform measures by Spain in anticipation of a bailout package lifted markets.
CBOT SOYBEAN-Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade ended higher after a seesaw trading session, turning higher in the final minutes of trade on position-squaring ahead of the weekend, traders said.
* Market turned lower at times, under pressure from the expanding U.S. soybean harvest and technical selling.
• Despite the late rally, front-month soybeans Sc1 ended the week down nearly 7 percent, the market's biggest weekly plunge in a year, amid long liquidation and anecdotal soy yield reports that were not as bad as feared.
• Informa Economics estimated U.S. 2012 soybean plantings at 77.143 million acres, above USDA's current figure of 76.1 million acres, and projected U.S. 2013 soybean plantings at 79.872 million acres. (Full Story)
• Farmers in Brazil's grain belt jump-started planting after early showers set the scene for what is expected to be a bumper corn and record soy crop, producers and analysts said. (Full Story)
• USDA confirmed sales of 140,000 tonnes of U.S. soymeal to South Korea for delivery in 2012/13. (Full Story)
• India's soymeal exports are expected to rise by 10 percent to 5.5 million tonnes in 2012/13 due to higher soybean output, said Davish Jain, chief of the Indore-based Prestige Group.
FCPO- SINGAPORE, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures dropped on Friday to their lowest in more than 11 months, posting their worst week since March last year as rising inventories and overnight losses in U.S. soybeans weighed on prices.
The brisk pace of the U.S. soybean harvest and global economic concerns dragged down palm oil prices, which have already come under pressure due to worries inventory levels in key producer Malaysia could climb above 2.2 million tonnes in September, which would be the highest level seen this year.
"The overseas market was down yesterday and this morning the Dalian market was down, so the futures market is under tremendous pressure on long liquidation and speculative short-selling," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.
"Technicals also don't look good as prices broke below 2,800 ringgit with immediate support at 2,754 ringgit."
At the close, the benchmark December contract FCPOc3 on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had lost 2 percent to 2,763 ringgit ($905) per tonne, slightly above the intraday low at 2,755 ringgit, a level unseen since Oct. 6.
The prices broke below the 2,800-ringgit mark for the first time this year and posted a 5.9 percent loss this week.
Total traded volume stood at 37,030 lots of 25 tonnes each, much higher than the usual 25,000 tonnes.
Technicals continued to look bearish with Reuters market analyst Wang Tao saying palm oil would keep falling to 2,719 ringgit per tonne based on a wave analysis.
Latest cargo surveyor data pointed to rising exports but traders said the increase was not enough to offset strong production, which could push September stocks even higher than the 10-month high of 2.1 million tonnes seen in August.
Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing said export shipments rose almost 15 percent during Sept. 1-20 over the same period a month ago, while another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, reported an almost 13 percent increase from a month ago.
In a bullish sign for palm oil, Brent crude rose towards $111 on Friday, extending its gains from a 1-1/2 month low hit in the previous session, as Libya's precarious security situation and lower North Sea production stoked supply fears.
In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for December delivery BOZ2 lost 0.2 percent. The most active January 2013 soyoil contract DBYF3 on the Dalian Commodity Exchange had closed 1.5 percent down.
Chicago Board of Trade November soybeans SX2 edged up, after dropping 3 percent in the previous session.
REGIONAL EQUITY- BANGKOK, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets ended mostly higher on Friday as stimulus measures from major central banks appeared to remain supportive to broad sentiment, prompting market players to buy into recently beaten down market large caps.
Among the bright spots, Jakarta's Composite Index .JKSE gained 0.6 percent, with Indonesia's main vehicle distributor and biggest listed company Astra International ASII.JK rising 2.1 percent after falling 2.7 percent over the last two sessions amid broad profit-taking.
Strength in commodities and banking shares helped lift most other markets in the region. Singapore's Straits Times Index .FTSTI edged up 0.5 percent, led higher by a 0.8 percent rise in commodities firm Golden Agri Resources Ltd GAGR.SI.
Bucking the trend, Malaysia's benchmark index .KLSE eased 0.1 percent. The Malaysian bourse said local institutions sold shares worth a net 110 million ringgit ($35.80 million) while foreign investors bought shares for 123 million ringgit ($40.03 million).
On the week, Malaysia lost 1.2 percent, Southeast Asia's worst performer. Others ended the week mixed, with Indonesia losing 0.3 percent, while Thailand posted a gain of 0.8 percent and Singapore ended up 0.3 percent.
