October Begins With Markets Finishing Off Their Session Highs – Acadiana Business Index

Markets finished off their session highs in the first trading day of October. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow closed with a gain of nearly 78 points to 13515 and the S&P 500 Index increased 3 points to 1444, but the NASDAQ was lower by over 2 points to 3113.
• Stocks rallied early on after a better-than-expected manufacturing reading.
• The ISM factory index showed manufacturing expanded in September for the first time in four months, with the gauge rising to 51.5.
• In a separate report, U.S. construction spending continued to fall in August, posting the biggest decline since July 2011.
• Fed speak also garnered attention as Chairman Bernanke defended the third round of quantitative easing and regional president Evans said the central bank should keep policy loose until the unemployment rate falls below 7%.
• Nearly all sectors were higher. Both crude oil and copper advanced to one-week highs, helping material and energy stocks gain ground with Alcoa up 6 cents to $8.85 and Chevron advanced 69 cents to $116.56.
• Utilities and telecommunication shares lagged behind due to their defensive characteristics and losses in technology weighed on the NASDAQ. As a result, Southern Co. was down 42 cents to $46.09, Sprint fell 34 cents to $5.52 and Apple declined $7.54 to $667.05.
• NYSE Composite volume totaled over 3.4 billion shares. The NYSE was 8-5 positive on issues and 2-1 positive on volume.
• Advancers beat decliners on the NASDAQ by 4-3 on issues, but was 7-6 negative on volume.
• In fixed-income, Treasuries were higher with the 10-year note up 6/32 to yield 1.61%.

For the complete report, click Ken's Market Report.