Market closes higher on better than expected economic data $GOOG:xnas
- Published: 02 October 2012
- Markets ended the session higher after better than expected manufacturing data helped markets close the first session of the new quarter in the black
- Bucking the recent trend of poor economic data the ISM Index of National Factory Activity rose from 49.6 to 51.5 in the month of August. However construction spending fell for the month of August by the most in a year as a rebound in residential spending was offset by weak non residential demand
- Leading the market higher on the S&P500 was the consumer staples sector, while the utilities and technology stocks lagged the market
- United Health Group and American Express led the Dow higher adding more gains to the index after it booked a 4% gain in the previous quarter
- October is a nervous month for markets with the 1929 and 1987 crashes beginning in October. However October's since 2008 have been positive
- Google closed at an all time high to surpass Microsoft in terms of market cap
- DOW +0.58%, S&P500 +0.27% and NASDAQ –0.09%
- USD was softer on the positive manufacturing data, AUD made a 1.040 high
- Gold rose modestly on weaker USD, Crude rose on manufacturing data
