Stocks Retain Most of Their Gains

Stocks gave up some of their gains on Wall Street on Thursday following a rally in the previous session.

The advance on Wednesday was spurred by a deal by lawmakers in Washington to avert automatic budget cuts and tax increases that were due to kick in this year.

The broad-based Standard Poor’s 500-stock index ended down 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average also lost 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.4 percent.

In earlier trading, the indexes had been slightly positive. But they pulled back after the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting showed that officials spoke about ending a new round of asset purchases by the middle of 2013, less than a year after the start of its latest effort to drive down unemployment.

An industry report showed that private-sector employers added 215,000 jobs in December, well above economists’ expectations for a gain of 133,000 jobs, according to a Reuters survey.

“The underlying economy has momentum, and the employment data confirms that,” said John Brady, managing director at R.J. O’Brien Associates in Chicago. “The political issues in Washington counter the momentum we’re seeing in the economy, but you might see still equities grind higher today on this.”

A separate report showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, but the data was distorted by year-end holidays.

Wall Street began the new year Wednesday with its best performance in more than a year, sparked by a last-minute deal in Washington to avert automatic massive tax increases and spending cuts that, in a worst-case scenario, would have hurt the nation’s economic growth.

Costco Wholesale reported a better-than-expected 9 percent rise in December sales at stores open at least a year, mainly helped by an additional sales day in the reporting period. Costco shares were up 1 percent.

Family Dollar Stores reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit as its emphasis on selling more everyday items like cigarettes and soft drinks put pressure on margins. The stock fell 13 percent.

Major European shares were mostly down modestly, although the FTSE 100 in London rose 0.3 percent.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss