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Morning Market Movers: Stocks Hesitant Ahead of Bernanke Remarks

Jan. 14, 2013 9:29am Becket Adams

Here’s what’s shaking:

Stocks:

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The new year rally in global markets showed few signs of abating Monday though investors reined in last week’s enthusiasm ahead of comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX rose 0.4 percent to 7,748 while the CAC-40 in France was 0.4 percent higher at 3,720. Britain’s FTSE 100 index was flat at 6,122.

Wall Street was poised for fairly flat opening, with Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.1 percent.

Much of the focus later will center on Bernanke who is due to speak at the University of Michigan after the markets close. Investors will be interested to hear if he sounds more confident about the U.S. economy and provides hints on future monetary policy.

Any market response to Bernanke’s comments will initially likely be felt in the currency markets. Ahead of his speech, the dollar was fairly flat, with the euro flat at $1.3340.

Oil:

Getty Images

Oil prices rose to near $94 on Monday.

Benchmark oil for February delivery was up 33 cents to $93.89 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped 26 cents to finish at $93.56 a barrel in New York on Friday.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was up 27 cents to $110.91 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

Wholesale gasoline was almost unchanged at $2.755 a gallon.
Heating oil rose 1.5 cents to $3.023 a gallon.
Natural gas rose 3.8 cents to $3.365 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Markets:

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Featured image courtesy Getty Images.

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Comments (2)

NigelTufnel
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 11:33am
It’s been an awesome sight watching Bernanke struggle with making his policy stand up. Even if you subscribe to Bernanke’s tactics, you must accept the fact that at the very least his timeline is way off. The goal of the fiat dollar policy was to raise the value of American homes and 401k accounts which it has indeed done. However, it was Bernake’s belief that doing so would increase individual spending (70% of our economy) by keeping interest rates at record low levels as well. No reason to save if you get nothing on a CD. The stimulus was designed to be the accelerant and then private spending would take over. Neither has worked as they believed. Bernake’s policy is failing because he didn’t consider where we were before the downturn. We had 5% interest on a one year CD and yet the American savings rate was -2.2%. Now we have a .09% 1 year CD rate and yet the American savings rate is at a historicly normal 4%(the highest was 8.3% during the Nixon years). Clearly other factors are in play that Bernake just can’t seem to wrap his head around. I have my theories but I would like to hear yours.

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- hauschild
  Posted on January 14, 2013 at 1:37pm
  I don’t believe Bernanke give’s a rat’s ass either way – sink or swim. What the hell does he care? Guys in those positions (especially these days) are never held accountable for any mistakes. They just shift the focus elsewhere as the lemmings turn to focus to wherever they are directed.
  
  Just look around and take note: Teachers don’t earn enough pay and compensation, that’s why kids are useless. Video games (instead of effective parenting) are to blame for mass murders by our youths. The list goes on and on.
  
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