U.S. Stocks Mixed, Volatile As Oil Falls, Yields Rise
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks were mixed in volatile trading Wednesday, as rising bond yields kept a lid on the market, offsetting enthusiasm over oil prices backing away from $69 a barrel, blow-out earnings from Morgan Stanley, and a $22.5 billion share buy-back from Home Depot Inc.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average still hung onto slight gains and was recently up 1.7 points at 13,637, as 12 of its 30 components advanced, led by the likes of Coca Cola Co. , General Motors Corp. , and United Technologies Corp. .
Leading the gains among blue chips, shares of Home Depot surged 6.7% after the home-improvement announced it would buy back up to $22.5 billion of its own shares.
The S&P 500 index rose 2.9 points to 1,530, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.5 points to 2,626.
Trading volumes showed 627 million shares exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange and 777 million on the Nasdaq stock market. Declining issues topped gainers by 17 to 13 on the NYSE and by 16 to 11 on the Nasdaq.
Crude-oil futures fell sharply after weekly data showed a surprise build in crude oil and gasoline inventories. A barrel recently fell $1.30 to $67.80.
Rising oil prices has grabbed investors attention in recent session as a barrel topped $69 amid concerns over production from Nigeria and refining capacity in the U.S.
Higher bond yields have also pressured the stock market over the past couple of weeks, as they provide a risk-free alternative to stocks, while also raising borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
Since last week, however, the bond market has been regaining some ground, sending yields lower and lifting the stock market.
"Interest rates moving back down closer to 5% is a big part of the story, helping to explain why we're seeing more money flows into U.S. equities over the past week," said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of the U.S. equity group at Deutsche Bank.
On Wednesday, however, the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond reversed early gains and was last down 6/32 to 95 9/32, yielding 5.115%.
Earnings
Investors are also starting to monitor earnings, which are starting to trickle through before the official reporting season begins in July.
Shares of FedEx Corp. rose 1.8% after the company reported a 7% quarterly profit rise, helped by a settlement with Airbus over a cancelled order for the A380 superjumbo.
On the downside, Circuit City slightly after it reported, as expected, a quarterly loss, following disappointing results from rival Best Buy Co. Inc. .
"We seeing some weakness from Best Buy and Circuit City, suggesting that the economy is not going to re-accelerate to the same extent as was thought a few weeks ago," Fitzpatrick said.
By sector, oil , real estate investment trusts and utilities led the downside. Airlines , telecoms and broker/dealers advanced.
Brokers in focus
Brokers, which often lead the financial sector and the broad market, got a boost after Morgan Stanley said second-quarter earnings were up 40% from the year earlier, widely beating analysts estimates. Its shares gained 2.2%.
Curbing enthusiasm for the sector, The Wall Street Journal reported that two big hedge funds run by Bear Stearns were close to being shut down as a rescue plan fell apart. Shares of Bear Stearns dropped 1.1%.
Merrill Lynch & Co. , one of the hedge funds' lenders, said it would move to seize collateral -- much of it mortgage-backed debt -- from the two funds and sell it, according to documents reviewed by the newspaper.
At the same time, the funds' managers worked with a handful of other key lenders, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. , to pay off the funds' $9 billion in loans, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Other markets
The dollar was up against the euro and the yen , pressuring gold futures, whih fell $3.50 to $658.40.
Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher is due to talk about the regional Texas economy.
Stock movers
Shares of MGM Mirage fell more than 10% after talks between the casino operator and majority shareholder Tracinda Corp. about the purchase of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and CityCenter properties broke down.
By Nick Godt