11:15AM New York – U.S. stocks lost their morning gains as oil and gold climbed. Bear Stearns and Starbucks replace their chiefs.
Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 34.90 12,861.04, Nasdaq rose 16.50 to 2,516.57, and S&P 500 advanced 8.41 to 1,424.59.
Bear Stearns chief executive James Cayne has stepped down but will hold the position of chairman. The president Alan Schwartz is likely to succeed him as the chief executive.
Bear Stearns stock has declined in the current credit market malaise from the high of $172.61 to the current price just above $76.
Bear Stearns has suffered heavy losses in mortgage securitization and asset management divisions in the last six months.
Starbucks (
SBUX: chart) stock jumped $2.12 to $20.50 after it said that Jim Dolan the current chief executive will be replaced by the founder Howard Schultz. Schultz will assume the roles of chairman and chief executive.
Circuit City (
CC: chart) dropped in the morning trading but recovered to trade up 4 cents to $4.25 after it reported same store sales declined 11.4% in December.
KB Home (
KBH: chart) dropped $1.01 to $17.47 after reporting revenue decline of 31% to $2.07 billion from a year ago and home sold fell 22% to 8,132. The average sale price dropped 12% to $247,800. The company reported a net loss of for the quarter ended November 30 of $772.7 million or $9.99 per share compared to a loss of $49.6 million or 64 cents per share.
KB Home also took a charge of $514.2 million on the loss of deferred tax assets and in a loss of $403.4 million in pre-tax inventories and losses in land options.
National Association of Realtor’s index of pending existing home sales declined at a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.6% in November to 87.6 from the revised level in October of 89.90 and a drop of 19% from a year ago.
Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and Schlumberger jumped higher on elevated crude oil prices.
Oil jumped $1.45 to $96.54 and gold increased $14 to $876.00. Euro traded at $1.4718 near the record level.
9:00AM New York, 7:30PM Mumbai - Sensex kept its upwards charge bucking the regional and global trends.
Stock markets in India closed flat on Tuesday with the Bombay Stock Market benchmark index Sensex gaining 0.3% or 61 at 20,873.
Of the stocks traded on BSE, 539 shares advanced, 2,404 fell, 23 remained unchanged while.
Among the Sensex index stocks, 16 gained while 14 shares fell.
Turnover on the BSE stood at 11,580 crore rupees while revenue on the National Stock Exchange was at 25,435 crore rupees.
In the broader markets, CNX Nifty index of 50 stocks held up by 0.1% to close at 6,288.
Buying was visible in oil & gas, and information technology shares while selling was visible in metal, healthcare and real estate stocks.
Among the index share, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Satyam, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Communication were among the advancers with each gaining more than 1.8%.
