US Stocks Remain Weaker As Crude Oil Price Sinks

Posted on July 6, 2009

On Monday morning there has been a slump in the energy sector and so the worries about the upcoming earnings season weighed on U.S. stocks.

Along with the stock market the commodity had been putting in solid gains, which is helped by an influx of speculative bets by those traders who are willing to take on risk. But during the recent sessions, this has been hurt by the investor’s worries about the weakness in demand due to the global recession, which now probably looks like that it will last longer than what is expected by many traders expected. stock market after crash

In New York recently crude futures were down $2.54 to $64.19 a barrel, which leads to a broad decline in raw materials. The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index was off 2.9%.

One relatively encouraging thing however come from the relatively low-bar set by the year-ago period taken as a comparison to the forthcoming numbers. It has been said by veteran traders and analysts that it’s getting much easier for companies to beat analysts’ earnings expectations with each passing quarter since the U.S. economy has now been in recession for more than a year and a half.

It is said by the Institute for Supply Management in economic news that its non-manufacturing index, which is a measure of U.S. service-sector activity, in June rose to 47.0, which has been raised from 44.0 in May. The latest reading was better than analysts expected, which is indicating a slowing contraction in the service sector.

The dollar stuck to narrow ranges against major counterparts, it is losing its basis to the yen but having an edge against the euro and this is ahead of Group of Eight meeting which will held this week.

On Monday most Asian markets ended lower, having oil and mining shares tumbling on the drop in commodity prices. There was a fall of 1.4% in Tokyo’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also fell 1.2%. There has been a fall in European shares as well as commodities-linked stocks declined.