The US markets made a mixed closing on Friday, though notching weekly gains that pushed the S&P 500 to its highest close since mid-2008. The market added gains on reports that consumer sentiment rose in February to the highest level in a year on strong awareness of improving employment, according to a gauge released by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters. Consumer sentiment rose to 75.3 in February from 75 in January, achieving a sixth month of improvement. Also, government data showed that lured by low prices and warm weather, more Americans went shopping for new homes in January and December. The sale of new single-family homes in the US fell slightly in January, but only because sales in December were revised higher. Taken together, sales in those two months were the strongest in a year, a good sign for a market that’s been in a deep slump since the 2007-2009 recession. New home sales totaled 321,000 in January on an annualized basis, compared to 324,000 in December, the Census Bureau reported.
In Europe, the German economy contracted 0.2% on a quarterly basis in the fourth quarter following a 0.6% expansion in the third quarter, an updated estimate from the Federal Statistics Office confirmed. The drop in Germany's GDP in the fourth quarter of 2011 was due mainly to a shortfall in foreign trade, the Federal Statistics Office stated. Besides, Italy sold €3 billion of zero-coupon bonds maturing on January 2014 at an average yield of 3.01% compared with 3.763% at the previous auction on January 26. The government also auctioned €1.5 billion of inflation-linked bonds.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower by 1.74 points, or 0.01 percent, at 12,983.00. The S&P 500 gained 2.28 points, or 0.17 percent, at 1,365.74, while the Nasdaq was up by 6.77 points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,963.75.
Indian ADRs closed mixed on Friday, HDFC Bank was up 0.69%, Sterlite Industries was up 0.45% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.24%. On the flip side, Tata Communications was down 0.46% and MTNL was down 0.07%.
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