Markets take a breather after recent gains as fiscal cliff talks stall $DXc1
- Published: 20 December 2012
- Markets ended the session on a weaker note after two strong days of gains. Stocks weakened into the close as fiscal cliff talks soured on news that Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said that the House will pass a budget bill that President Obama has already threatened to veto. With the deadline drawing closer, failure to come to an agreement will see across the board budget cuts that could stifle growth
- In economic news Housing Starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 861k in November, this is a 3% drop from the prior month and below the 875k consensus
- Leading the losses on the S&P500 were consumer staples and health care stocks
- General Electric fell 3.14% after it was removed from UBS's 'key call' conviction list
- Oracle rallied 3.68% after it reported earnings that managed to beat expectations
- FedEx managed to eke out a gain of 0.91% after better than expected earnings
- DOW -0.74%, S&P500 -0.76% and NASDAQ -0.33%
- USD firmed on fiscal cliff roadblocks however EUR still managed to touch 1.3300
- Gold fell slightly after firming late while Crude rallied1.3% after a drop in inventories
