The market's bounce followed the
S&P 500's worst weekly loss since November and suggested to some market
watchers that a much debated market correction has yet to arrive.
"It still seems like the bulls
are buying the dips. Unless there is a fair amount of bad news, I think the
market hangs in at these levels," said Uri Landesman, president of
Platinum Partners in New York, who added he still expects the market to be
"signficiantly lower" in six months.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 19.66 points, or 0.14 percent, to 14,567.17 at the close. The Standard
& Poor's 500 Index gained 7.25 points, or 0.47 percent, to
1,562.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 27.50 points, or 0.86 percent, to close at 3,233.55.
Last week's market decline came amid
signs of slowing growth from China, which also led to a steep drop in commodity
prices.
"A decent tech tape is lifting
all boats today. I think they're flocking towards the ones you've already seen
good numbers from. You're not going to get blindsided by something coming out,
if you've already got the news," said Michael James, managing director of
equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
S&P 500 earnings growth is
forecast at 2.2 percent for the first quarter, based on results from 21 percent
of the companies and estimates for the rest, Thomson Reuters data showed. That
is up from an April 1 forecast of 1.5 percent growth.
Oils - NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) - Brent
crude futures rose for a third straight session to top $100 a barrel on Monday,
lifted by gains in the U.S. stock market.
Trading was choppy, with oil prices
closely tracking the U.S. equity market, which moved into positive territory in
the afternoon on the back of a one percent gain in Microsoft shares. Earlier, pressure had come from disappointing
corporate earnings and lower-than-expected existing home sales.
Brent June crude futures rose 74 cents to close at $100.39 a barrel, down from a high of $101.04. The
May U.S. contract, which expired Monday, was up 75 cents to
$88.76 after reaching a high of $89.13.
The three days of gains in oil came
after a sharp sell off earlier in the month. Brent has lost nearly 9 percent
since the start of April on concerns about demand as growth slowed in the
United States and China, the world's two largest oil consumers, while recession
in Europe deepened.
A negative reading in the Federal
Reserve Bank of Chicago's national activity index released on Monday reinforced
concerns about U.S. economic growth. That number had been expected to come in
positive.
CBOT Soybean - April 22 (Reuters) - Soybean futures on the Chicago Board
of Trade fell nearly 1 percent on Monday, weighed down by forecasts for U.S.
planting weather to improve next week, turning warmer and drier, traders said.
- New-crop November soybeans fell to a 10-month low at $11.94-1/2 before paring losses.
- Chinese soy import data also pressured prices. China imported 3.841 million tonnes of soybeans in March, down 20.4 percent from a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed. China imported 3.307 million tonnes from the United States, down 12.2 percent.
- CBOT soymeal and soyoil followed soybeans lower; declines in Malaysian palmoil values added to bearish sentiment.
- Firm cash markets helped front-month May soybeans gain relative to July on spreads. The inverted May/July spread peaked at 55 cents, premium May.
- Basis bids for soybeans shipped by barge to the U.S. Gulf Coast were steady to firm early on Monday as portions of Midwest rivers were closed to barge traffic due to high water and flooding, limiting supplies available to Gulf exporters.
- Country offerings of soybeans were extremely thin, lifting domestic crusher bids to historic highs.
- USDA reported export inspections of U.S. soybeans in the latest week at 4.970 million bushels, below a range of trade estimates for 5 million to 10 million.
- USDA said private exporters reported sales of 174,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China for delivery in 2013/14.
BMD CPO - KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil dropped to a fresh four-month low on Monday, as volatility in commodities markets overall and losses in soybeans weighed, with investors also wary ahead of slowing export demand.
Global markets have faced turbulent
trading over the past week as economic data from the United States and China
sparked concerns that slowing growth could hurt demand for commodities,
triggering a sell-off in crude oil and gold markets.
Palm, the most widely traded
vegetable oil in the world, also faced pressure from sluggish export data which
slipped about 5-6 percent in April 1-20 compared to a month ago, cargo
surveyors.
"There's nothing wrong for
market to be down today -- it was expected generally because of the soybean and
crude oil prices, which indirectly affects Malaysian palm oil," said a
trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
"The market is quiet and
uncertain at this level. A lot of buyers are staying on the sidelines for now.
The local sentiment is okay, but not the global sentiment," he added.
Falling prices of soyoil, a close
competitor of palm, could wean away demand from the latter.
The benchmark July contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 1.7 percent at 2,256
ringgit ($740) per tonne after going as low as 2,250 ringgit -- a level not
seen since Dec. 14.
Total traded volumes were thin at
17,147 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 25,000 lots.
Sluggish exports in the remaining
days of April could prevent end-stocks from easing, traders say, and further
hurt prices, which have lost 7.4 percent so far this year.
Palm oil stocks in Malaysia, the
world's No.2 producer, stood at 2.17 million tonnes as of end-March after
declining 11 percent from end-February's 2.44 million tonnes.
Oil futures steadied around $100 a
barrel on Monday, retrieving only a fraction of the ground lost over the past
three weeks due to worries about the world economy and the impact on fuel
demand.
In other vegetable oil markets, U.S.
soyoil for July delivery dropped nearly 1 percent in Asian trade. The
most-active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange tumbled nearly 3 percent.