Wall Street spends day going nowhere

Irish Sun Thursday 2nd February, 2012

Investors and traders were divided on Thursday, pushing up the Nasdaq early in the day, selling off Dow stocks, and leaving the Standard and Poor's pretty much unchanged.

At the final bell not much had changed except the Dow Jones had clawed back some of its earlier losses, the Nasdaq had added to earlier gains, and the Standard and Poor's 500 had edged into the black.

The proposed Facebook IPO, now confirmed to be seeking $5 billion in funds, helped technology stocks. The IPO is expected to be priced at a level which will put Facebook's capitalisation at around $100 billion, which will value founder Mark Zuckerberg (pictured)'s personal holding at $28 billion.

"We've been overbought technically, and earnings are the gasoline for the market's engine, and as we approach the middle of February one should look for, and anticipate, running out of steam," Marc Pado, chief market strategist at Dowbull Inc. in northern California told MarketWatch.

At the close of trading Thursday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9.38 points or 0.07% at 12,707.08.

Tha Nasdaq Composite was up 11.41 points or 0.44% at 2,859.68.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was up 1.45 points or 0.11% at 1,325.54.

Events in Europe still held the attention of markets despite the on-again, off-again nature, and the protractedness of the eurozone's talks on Greece's sovereign debt. "Hours have turned into days which have since shifted into weeks and it's turned us all into market spectators and not players, hence the pathetic trading volume," Miller Tabak equity strategist Peter Boockvar, was quoted by MarketWatch as saying.

Meantime Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was urging the U.S. Congress to address the country's ever-worsening deficict, and to stimulate the economy as it is still vulnerable to shocks. Bernanke akso defended the central bank's near-zero interest rates, which last week he said would be maintained until at least late 2014. "The basic reason for low long-term rates, which are also a feature of every other industrial economy, are low inflation, slow expected growth and the fact that the dollar is a safe haven," he testified before the Congress.

"The sluggish expansion has left the economy vulnerable to shocks," Bernanke said.

The U.S. dollar was generally a fraction stronger Thursday. The euro however was holding its own at 1.3145 around the New York close, while the Japanese yen gained a few basis points to 76.21.

The British pound shed a smidgeon to 1.5804 while the Swiss franc inched down to 0.9166.

The Australian dollar's rapid run-up of recent days appeared to be showing some signs of exhaustion. The Aussie was last quoted at 1.0707.

The Canadian dollar was barely moved at 0.9995, while the New Zealand dollar retained its strength against the U.S. and Australian dollars, last quoted against the U.S. unit at 0.8334, and fetching one Australian dollar for each 1.2835 Kiwi.