Apple dives, Dow five-year high

In a Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 file photo, a person stands near the Apple logo at the company's new store in Grand Central Terminal, in New York. If Apple had been added to the Dow in June 2009, the last time there were serious rumors that it would happen, the average would be about 2,500 points higher than it is today and well above its all-time high.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Source: AP

SHARES of Apple hit their lowest level in more than a year overnight, continuing a decline hastened by the company's last quarterly earnings report.

Apple Inc stock touched as low as $US419 overnight - its weakest point since January 2012 - before closing down 2.4 per cent at $US420.05.

The Cupertino, California, company's January 23 report signalled that its fast growth phase, rare for a company of its size, may be coming to an end.

Apple's stock price peaked in September at $US705.07 on the day the iPhone 5 was released. With the overnight close, the stock has dropped 40 per cent from the record high.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average defied the effects of new US spending cuts and pushed to a new five-year high overnight.

At the closing bell, the Dow picked up 38.16 points (0.27 per cent) to 14,127.82, its second highest close ever and less than 40 points from the all-time record set on October 9, 2007.

The broad-based S&P 500 increased 7.00 (0.46 per cent) to 1525.20, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 12.29 (0.39 per cent) to 3182.03.

The gains came after US budget cuts took effect on Saturday following the failure of Washington policy makers to agree on a compromise package.

"Yes the sequester has been activated, but it will take time to have effect on the economic data," said Peter Cardillo of Rockwell Global Capital. The markets continue to show much "resilience".

Analysts pointed to remarks from the Federal Reserve's number two official that reaffirmed the Fed's aggressive stimulus policy.

Janet Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Fed board of governors, said in a speech that the Fed intends to "keep monetary policy highly accomodative until well into the recovery".

Yahoo gained 3.5 per cent after earning an upgrade from Barclays, while other big tech stocks were mixed: Apple fell 2.4 per cent, Google added 1.9 per cent and Oracle picked up 1.2 per cent.

Oil-services company Transocean inched 0.1 per cent higher after besting earnings forecasts and reinstating its dividend.

Oil company Hess picked up 3.5 per cent after saying it would exit downstream businesses and focus on exploration and production.

The news lifted leading independent refiners, including Marathon Petroleum Corp. (+5.6 per cent), Phillips 66 (+2.8 per cent) and Valero Energy (+4.0 per cent).

Among retailers, Dow components Walmart and Home Depot picked up 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively, while Target gained 3.6 per cent.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 1.88 per cent from 1.85 per cent on Saturday, while the yield on the 30-year jumped to 3.09 per cent from 3.07 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

With AP.

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Apple dives, Dow five-year high

In a Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 file photo, a person stands near the Apple logo at the company's new store in Grand Central Terminal, in New York. If Apple had been added to the Dow in June 2009, the last time there were serious rumors that it would happen, the average would be about 2,500 points higher than it is today and well above its all-time high.(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Source: AP

SHARES of Apple hit their lowest level in more than a year overnight, continuing a decline hastened by the company's last quarterly earnings report.

Apple Inc stock touched as low as $US419 overnight - its weakest point since January 2012 - before closing down 2.4 per cent at $US420.05.

The Cupertino, California, company's January 23 report signalled that its fast growth phase, rare for a company of its size, may be coming to an end.

Apple's stock price peaked in September at $US705.07 on the day the iPhone 5 was released. With the overnight close, the stock has dropped 40 per cent from the record high.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average defied the effects of new US spending cuts and pushed to a new five-year high overnight.

At the closing bell, the Dow picked up 38.16 points (0.27 per cent) to 14,127.82, its second highest close ever and less than 40 points from the all-time record set on October 9, 2007.

The broad-based S&P 500 increased 7.00 (0.46 per cent) to 1525.20, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 12.29 (0.39 per cent) to 3182.03.

The gains came after US budget cuts took effect on Saturday following the failure of Washington policy makers to agree on a compromise package.

"Yes the sequester has been activated, but it will take time to have effect on the economic data," said Peter Cardillo of Rockwell Global Capital. The markets continue to show much "resilience".

Analysts pointed to remarks from the Federal Reserve's number two official that reaffirmed the Fed's aggressive stimulus policy.

Janet Yellen, vice chairwoman of the Fed board of governors, said in a speech that the Fed intends to "keep monetary policy highly accomodative until well into the recovery".

Yahoo gained 3.5 per cent after earning an upgrade from Barclays, while other big tech stocks were mixed: Apple fell 2.4 per cent, Google added 1.9 per cent and Oracle picked up 1.2 per cent.

Oil-services company Transocean inched 0.1 per cent higher after besting earnings forecasts and reinstating its dividend.

Oil company Hess picked up 3.5 per cent after saying it would exit downstream businesses and focus on exploration and production.

The news lifted leading independent refiners, including Marathon Petroleum Corp. (+5.6 per cent), Phillips 66 (+2.8 per cent) and Valero Energy (+4.0 per cent).

Among retailers, Dow components Walmart and Home Depot picked up 1.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent respectively, while Target gained 3.6 per cent.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 1.88 per cent from 1.85 per cent on Saturday, while the yield on the 30-year jumped to 3.09 per cent from 3.07 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.

With AP.

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Oil market dives on Saudi output rumours

Khaled al Otaiby, an official of the Saudi oil company Aramco, watches progress at a rig at al-Howta oil field near Howta, Saudi Arabia. Source: AP

GLOBAL oil prices plunged overnight as traders seized on speculation over possible plans for an increase in crude production and digested downbeat US housing starts data, analysts said.

Traders also took the opportunity to cash in recent gains as they awaited publication of minutes from the US Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting.

In late afternoon (local time) London deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April sank $US1.57 to $US115.95 a barrel.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for March dived $1.97 cents to $US94.69 ($91.91) per barrel. The March contract expires at the close.

"Crude oil fell sharply today on market chatter that Saudi Arabia was planning to increase production to meet rising demand from countries like China," said analyst Fawad Razaqzada at trading group GFT Markets.

"On top of this, we had a disappointing US housing starts figure, which gave investors the excuse to book some profit on their long positions ahead of the FOMC meeting minutes this evening."

Markets awaited the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes for the January 29-30 meeting, due for release at 2 pm (6am AEDT).

Earlier, New York crude prices had risen on the back of easing supply concerns over an important US pipeline, analysts said.

US crude prices had advanced "on reports of increasing oil volume through the Seaway pipeline", IG Markets Singapore said in a report, referring to the pipeline serving Gulf Coast refineries.

The Seaway pipeline has recently been troubled by distribution problems but plans to pump 295,000 barrels a day between late February and the end of May, media reports said.

Seaway is seen as a critical component in addressing a glut of oil at the bottlenecked US hub in Cushing, Oklahoma.

The pipeline's capacity was recently expanded to 400,000 barrels a day from 150,000 barrels, but the operator has encountered technical problems that have limited the volume.

Later today, analysts will pore over the American Petroleum Institute's weekly supply report for clues on the health of oil demand in the world's biggest crude consuming nation.

The industry body's statistics are due one day later than normal due to Monday's public holiday in the United States.

Similarly, tomorrow the US government's Department of Energy will publish its weekly inventory figures one day later than usual.

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