(RTTNews) - The major U.S. index futures are pointing to a higher opening on Wednesday following lackluster performance in the previous session. The global markets rallied, as positive data points, including an upward revision to China's GDP growth forecast by the World Bank, encouraged market participants, temporarily alleviating economic worries. That said, a private employment report released earlier in the day showed continuing turmoil in the job market. Wall Street's direction in today's session largely hinges on the Fed decision and the results of the ISM's services survey.

After trading below the unchanged for most of Tuesday's session, ignoring the confidence exuded by deal announcements, the major averages took a diverse path in the afternoon. The lackluster trading witnessed for most of the day reflected caution ahead of the Fed's interest rate decision and apprehension over some key impending first-tier economic reports. The Dow Industrial remained below the unchanged line to close the session down 17.53 points or 0.18% at 9,772.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P 500 Index recovered from the steep losses they suffered in the morning and moved into positive territory by the afternoon. After showing some volatility, both the averages closed higher for the session. The Nasdaq rose 8.12 points or 0.40% to 2,057 and the S&P 500 Index advanced 2.53 points or 0.24% to 1,045.
Nineteen of the thirty Dow components ended the session lower, with General Electric (GE), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel (INTC), Coca Cola (KO), Merck (MRK), Microsoft (MSFT) and Verizon Communication (VZ) posting notable losses. On the other hand, Alcoa (AA), American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC) and Caterpillar (CAT) were among the advancers.

Among the sector indexes, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 1.31%. However, the Dow Jones Transportation Average showed divergence with the Dow and closed 5.28% higher, helped by the Burlington Northern (BNI) deal, and the NYSE Arca Airline Index rose 1.26%. The Dow Jones U.S. Basic Materials Average climbed 1.84%, while the NYSE Arca Oil Index and the Philadelphia Oil Service Index ended up 1.12% and 2.92%, respectively. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index rallied 8.02% compared to a more modest 1.25% gain by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The NYSE Arca Disk Drive Index rose 1.93% and the NYSE Arca Networking Index gained about 1%.

The CBOE Volatility Index, the fear gauge among investors, has broken a short-term uptrend, although on a longer-term basis, the downtrend is still intact. After having broke above its 50-day moving average, the index looks poised to challenge its 200-day moving average, which is currently at 32.6. The index has pulled back slightly after it breached the 30 level last weekend.

 1   2   3   4   5   6   Next Page