The stock markets in the United States climbed a bit higher on Friday after the House of Representative approved the bipartisan budget deal to prevent another government shutdown and increased domestic and military spending. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the budget deal and President Obama is expected to sign it next week.
Commenting on the approval of the budget agreement, John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management told Bloomberg, “The budget accord is a plus right now, but there are more technical forces at work. People are looking for gains before year-end.”
On the other hand, Dan McMahon, director of equity trading at Raymond James Financial opined, “Everyone’s just pleased that they got a budget deal done and that they were able to work out a compromise. There’s a lot of anticipation about the Fed meeting next week. There’s the potential that they could talk about some tapering, though I think it’s probably unlikely.”
According to Bloomberg, 34% of economists who participated its survey predicted that the Federal Reserve will start tapering its $85 billion monthly stimulus during its meeting next week.
U.S. Stock Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)- 15,755.62 (+0.10%)
- S&P 500- 1,775.24 (-0.01%)
- NASDAQ- 4,000,97(+0.06%)
- Russell 2000- 1,108.74 (+0.50%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 2,921.92 (-0.21%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,439.96 (-0.08%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,006.46 (-0.12%)
Asia Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 15,403.11 (+0.40%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 23,245.96 (+0.12%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2,406.64 (-0.14%)
Stocks in Focus
The shares of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) increased 12% to as much as $60.89 per share today propelled by its report that the number of its subscribers for online products such as Photoshop increased to by 402,000 to 1.4 million, higher than anticipated. Josh Olson, technology analyst at Edward Jones commented, “Investors are giving Adobe’s management team credit for its progress despite the light profit to this point, and will likely continue to do so, as long as the number of new cloud subscribers continue to outpace expectations.”
The stock price of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) fell by more than 7% to $77.30 per share after a U.S. bankruptcy court judge said that the company might be liable for as much as $14 billion related to environmental and health claims. The judge said that Anadarko’s unit Kerr McGee committed improper actions in connection with the spinoff of Tronox in 2005.
The stock value of Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ:EA) surged more than 6% to $22.23 per share on reports that the sales of its video game hardware in the United States increased 58% in November. Michael Olson, analyst at Piper Jaffray, commented that the company’s video game titles such as Battlefield and Call of Duty have done “reasonably well” in terms of sales performance.
