DJI - NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S.
stocks rebounded from early declines to close little changed on Wednesday, but
investors were still worried about the chance of a run on Cypriot banks and its
possible implications for other euro-zone lenders.
Financial shares fell on both sides
of the Atlantic on concerns that depositors at banks in other euro-zone
countries will withdraw large amounts of money. Investors are worried that the
Cyprus bailout would become a template for solving banking crises in the
region.
The S&P 500 fell 0.8 percent in
morning trading, but in line with recent market behavior, investors took the
drop as a buying opportunity. By the close, late buying had helped the S&P
500 cut most of the session's losses to end down less than a point.
The benchmark S&P 500 has traded
within 10 points of its record closing high for 13 consecutive days, without
once moving above the 1,565.15 level set Oct. 9, 2007. It is on track to post
its fifth consecutive month of gains.
"Any time you have a run like
we've had, market participants will look for a reason to take profits,"
said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in
Boston.
"But pauses in this uptrend
have been short and shallow. Everybody seems to want to buy in the slightest
pullback."
Cypriot banks are due to reopen on
Thursday while limiting withdrawals, banning checks and curbing the use of
Cypriot credit cards abroad, after being closed for almost two weeks. Uninsured
deposits in Cyprus are expected to be reduced as part of the rescue deal.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 33.49 points or 0.23 percent, to 14,526.16 at the close. The S&P 500 lost just 0.92 of a point, or 0.06 percent, to finish at 1,562.85. The Nasdaq
Composite added 4.04 points or 0.12 percent, to close
at 3,256.52.
Oils - NEW YORK, March 27 (Reuters) - Crude
oil prices rose on Wednesday in choppy trading as U.S. heating oil rallied on
falling distillate inventories, while rising crude oil stockpiles in the United
States and the stronger dollar limited gains.
News of fire alarms going off at
Imperial Oil Ltd's site of its 121,000 barrel per day
refinery near Sarnia, Ontario, sparked U.S. crude to turn higher in the hour
ahead of settlement. Imperial later said the refinery was unaffected by the
fire.
Earlier, U.S. crude had declined,
widening its discount to Brent a day after the spread between the two crude
futures contracts had narrowed to the smallest since July.
Supporting Brent prices was news
that South Korea has postponed an oil tax decision by three months, according
to sources with knowledge of the matter, a move that could boost demand for
North Sea crudes.
Under a free trade agreement with
the European Union, South Korean refiners could import North Sea crudes
tax-free. The refiners would then process the crude into products for export
and claim a tax rebate.
Brent May crude rose 33 cents to settle at $109.69 a barrel, after reaching $109.98, testing
resistance near its 200-day moving average of $109.90. The session low was
$108.85.
Brent prices were on track to post a
decline of more than 1 percent for the first quarter 2013 and for the month.
U.S. May crude rose 24 cents to settle at $96.58 a barrel, having traded from $95.58 to
$96.84, which was the highest intraday price in five weeks.
U.S. crude futures were on pace to
finish the first quarter with a 5 percent gain and up nearly 5 percent for the
month.
Helping limit crude oil price gains,
the dollar index strengthened as the euro fell to a
four-month low versus the U.S. currency on concerns about a weak Italian bond
auction and worries over Cyprus' rescue deal.
"The externals have been a
negative for oil prices with the euro falling to its lowest level since
mid-November of 2012," said Dominick Chirichella of Energy Management
Institute.
"The market is still uneasy
about the type of deal that was done for Cyprus."
U.S. heating oil futures rose 1.8 percent, or 3.41 cents to settle at $2.9154 a gallon after the
government's weekly inventory report showed distillate stocks fell 4.51 million
barrels last week, much more than the 800,000-barrel drop analysts expected.
The Energy Information
Administration (EIA) said U.S. crude inventories rose 3.26 million barrels,
above the forecast for an increase of 700,000 barrels in a Reuters survey of
analysts.
Gasoline stocks fell 1.6 million
barrels, the EIA said, more than the expected drop of 1.0 million barrels, but
U.S. gasoline futures managed only a 0.49 cent gain to settle at
$3.1155 a gallon.
Crude oil stocks at the Cushing,
Oklahoma, storage hub rose 439,000 barrels to 49.47 million, the EIA said.
Brent's premium to U.S. crude reached $13.94 a barrel, then the spread narrowed back to end at $13.11 based
on contract settlements.
On Tuesday, the premium fell as low as
$12.52 during the session, the lowest since July 2012 and in retreat after
pushing to the 2013 peak of $23.45 on Feb. 8.
"One of the reasons why (U.S.)
crude has been rallying versus Brent was because of the trend of supplies
falling at Cushing, but this build in Cushing is weighing now," said Phil
Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
Despite the bearish implications of
rising U.S. crude oil supply, upbeat data in recent months has boosted
confidence in the recovery of the world's top economy and No. 1 oil consumer.
Crude prices on either side of the
Atlantic rose more than 1 percent on Tuesday after strong U.S. economic reports
fed optimism about the economy and energy demand.
CBOT Soybean - Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures were higher on positioning and bull-spreading ahead of the release at 11:00
am CDT (1600 GMT) on Thursday of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) March plantings and quarterly stocks reports, traders said.
·
An average
of analysts' estimates pegged 2013 U.S. soybean plantings
at a record large 78.394 million acres and up from 77.198
million last year. U.S. farmers
may plant a record
large soy area due to high prices caused by last year's drought.
·
An average
of analysts' estimates pegged the U.S. soybean stocks on
March 1, 2013 at 935 million bushels, below the 1.374 million on
March 1 last year. Soybean
stocks are seen
falling, with soy supplies forecast to hit their lowest level in
nine years.
·
Rains are
expected across most of Brazil next week which will cause
some delays in soybean harvest and the rains also will reach
much of Argentina early next week, aiding double-drop soybean
prospects, according to Commodity Weather Group.
·
Malaysian
palm oil future inched up on Wednesday on expectations
that lower production may ease stocks further, but worries
over the euro zone curbed appetite for risk.
·
Palm oil
on the European vegetable oils market rose in a mild
technical rebound on Wednesday following recent losses on disappointing
export numbers, supported by hopes that reduced production
could still lead to lower Malaysian palm oil stocks.
·
ICE Canada
canola futures were generally following the CBOT soy
complex ahead of Thursday's USDA quarterly stocks and plantings report
but tight supplies in the cash market also were underpinning
canola futures.
·
Cash
soybean spot basis bids were higher at processors and river
terminals around the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday amid good demand and
tight supplies, dealers said.
·
Estimates
ahead of the release at 7:30 a.m. CDT (1230 GMT) of USDA's
weekly export sales report totaled zero to 475,000 tonnes of
old-crop U.S. soybeans and 150,000 to 400,000 tonnes of
new-crop soybeans.
·
Key chart
support for the May contract is at its 200-day moving
average of $14.44-1/2 per bushel. The nine-day relative strength
index is at 56.
BMD CPO - SINGAPORE, March 27 (Reuters) -
Malaysian palm oil futures inched up on Wednesday on expectations that lower
production may ease stocks further, but worries over the euro zone curbed
appetite for risk.
Losses in palm oil early in the week
may also have lured some buyers back into the market. The tropical oil has lost
around 1.8 percent so far this week, weighed down by weaker export demand and
uncertainty surrounding Cyprus's bailout deal.
"Yes, exports were lower (for
the first 25 days), but we expect them to pick up for the full month. Stocks
could dip to 2.35 million tonnes or lower," said a trader with a foreign
commodities brokerage in Malaysia.
By the market close, the benchmark
June contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange
had gained 0.4 percent to 2,447 ringgit ($789) per tonne. Prices traded in a
tight range 2,430 to 2,467 ringgit.
Total traded volume stood at 34,133
lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 25,000 lots.
But traders are still counting on a
recovery in demand to support prices after a surprise drop in shipments for the
first 25 days of March as major buyer India bought less of the crude grade.
Cargo surveyors will release export data for the full month on Monday.
Overseas investors also stayed on
the sidelines ahead of a planting intentions report on soybeans by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture on Thursday.
In other markets, Brent crude held
above $109 a barrel late on Wednesday in Asia as robust U.S. data which
brightened the outlook for demand from the world's biggest oil consumer
outweighed worries over the euro zone.
In other vegetable oil markets, U.S.
soyoil for May delivery gained 0.2 percent in late Asian trade. The
most-active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange closed 0.6 percent higher.
Regional Equities - BANGKOK, March 27 (Reuters) - The
main Philippine index scaled a record high on Wednesday after Fitch Ratings
upgraded the country's sovereign rating to investment grade and the Indonesian
index closed at an all-time high after the appointment of a new central bank
governor.
Other Southeast Asian stock markets
crawled higher, joining those in broader Asia, comforted by positive U.S. data.
Philippines was an outperformer on the day, ending up 2.7 percent at 6,847.47, as investors
increased positions in large caps after the country won an investment grade
credit rating for the first time.
"It's something that was
already expected by the stock market but I think investors will welcome it and
that will push the main index to 7,000 possibly next week," said Jose
Vistan, head of research at AB Capital Securities.
Shares in SM Investments Corp,
the biggest company by market value, jumped 5.3 percent while Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Co. , the second biggest, climbed 4.2 percent.
Vistan expects the market to rally
further despite concerns over its high valuation. It traded at 20.77 times the
price-to-earnings multiple, higher than regional peers, according to Thomson
Reuters data.
The Philippine stock market will be
closed on Thursday and Friday for the Easter holidays. Trading will resume on
Monday.
Jakarta's Composite Index ,
the second best performer on the day, ended 1.8 percent higher at 4928.10,
surpassing its previous record close of 4,874.49 set on March 8.
Investors bought large caps such as
Bank Mandiri which gained 4.2 percent after parliament
approved Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo's proposed switch to become the
next head of the central bank.
The Thai SET index rose 1.1 percent to a 1-week high of 1,560.87 as investors bought shares in
companies expected to report strong quarterly results but some small and
mid-cap stocks were hit by a tightening in trading rules.
Nomura Equity Research maintained a
year-end target 1,600 for the SET index.
"2013 marks the beginning of a
seven-year government spending on infrastructure. This, we believe, will likely
keep the economy and earnings for domestic sectors buoyant over the next few
years," Nomura said in a note.