Stock Market News 5th January 2012

Here is todays roundup of some of the stock market happenings for today across the various timezones where trade usually commences.  Apologies for any data not reported, however we hope you find this a useful summary.

Once again in the Uk, we see that investors fearing the Eurozone and are afraid to go about their business.  As a result this has once again shown that the Uk blue chip shares index closed down at 0.8% lower than yesterday.  The fear is that Euro zone countries and banks will find times harder than ever before to grow and nurture their businesses.

The trouble is that every time the Euro tries to go for a rally it seems to get slapped in the face and knocked backwards again, so there have been plenty of opportunities to get yourself disappointed!

Out of all the various Blue chip companies, Vedanta became the largest loser for the day, dropping by 5.2% as a decline in Copper prices ensued.

On the flip side, the chip maker ARM holdings had a great day, managing to rise by a 2.6%, because UBS placed a short term “buy” rating.  This is all due to the fact that they’ve seen good solid sales of top grade phones.

USA stock market news items

In new York, there has been a relative (yet once again, cautious) report that has shown that the jobs recovery has seen an increase in it’s pace.  This report has actually surprised many analysts who actually only predicted about half of the recover would happen.

In terms of caution you also have to bear in mind that there can be some seasonal items which will affect the outcome.  At this time of year it is possible for results to be tainted somewhat, or in fact over-inflated.  Company bosses will tend to keep employees on their payroll for accounting requirements, and they may choose to revise their readings at a later date.

However despite this being a rather volatile period of time, it must be said that things are definitely more optimistic for the US jobs markets at the moment so we cannot discount this news outright.  Despite the fact that these claims have been made, and investors have been cautious, the trend is good, backed up also by the fact that the labor department has reported a dip in jobless claims for the first time in 5 weeks, falling by 15,000.

Tech stocks have had a confident push north today thanks to new coming from leading computer hard drive company Seagate who have reported multiple good news items in relation to sales.  Confirmation to follow  later but second quarter sales are expected to be between $3.1 billion and $3.2 billion.

So overall, a normal day at the office – a mixed bag of news, fears and speculation.  Things are not all doom and gloom and some sectors are pushing ahead.  Thanks for reading.