On June 11, 2009, the U.S. sharemarket observed an upward trend following a decrease in the number of jobless claims and rise in retail sales in May. According to the report of The U.S. Department of Labor, jobless claims fell by 24,000 to 601,000 last week. Though the number is quite high, it is lower compared to the January figure. On the contrary, retail sales rose 0.5% in May 2009 reporting the third monthly gain this year. Here are some of the highlights of the stock market:
Shares of Bank of America Corporation advanced 6.2% to $12.72.
Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp, the biggest bank of the state of Ohio, rose 4.9% to $7.70. Today, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded the bank’s share to “buy” from “neutral.”
Share prices of Regions Financial Corporation increased 6.3% to $4.25 marking the biggest gain in S&P 500. Share of the banks was also upgraded by Goldman Sachs Group.
Shares of Chevron Corporation advanced 0.7% to $74.33.
Share prices of Microsoft Corporation gained 1.1% to $22.80.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.9% to 947.66 at 11:39 at the New York Stock Exchange. In March, the index hit a “12-year low” and rose 40% since then.
Dow Jones advanced by 67.19 points to 8,806.21.
Price of crude oil rose to $72.64 per barrel in New York, the highest in the last seven months. This also boosted the share prices of the energy companies. International Energy Agency (IEA), forecasted a rise in the demand of crude oil around the world for the first time since August 2008. In May, China bought 3.9 million barrels a day.
Yields on ten year treasury bonds went down 3.93%.
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