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 Investors in U.S.-based funds pulled $6.51 billion out of stock
mutual funds in the week ended Wednesday, representing the biggest
weekly outflow this year, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service
showed on Thursday.
In a bullish signal, the S&P 500 closed on Friday right above 1,775 — considered a technical support level. At less than 2 percent below
its record closing high, the S&P 500's pullback for the week shows
no signs of investor panic, traders said.
Investors have been trying to gauge the timing of an expected
winding down of the U.S. central bank's bond-buying stimulus, with
many market participants expecting the Fed to announce a tapering in
March.
Stronger economic data of late, however, has led some to shorten
that timeline to as soon as the end of next week's two-day meeting.
"Focus is still on what the Fed says next Wednesday. There's a set
of people that think (the Fed) is going to announce a tapering, but
I think what we will have is more clarity," said Ken Polcari,
director of the NYSE floor division at O'Neil Securities in New
York.
Economic data on Friday showed producer prices declined in November
for a third straight month, indicating a lack of inflation pressure
that could give the Federal Reserve some wiggle room as it weighs
the future of its stimulus.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 15.93 points or 0.1
percent, to end at 15,755.36. The S&P 500 <.SPX> dipped a mere 0.18
of a point or 0.01 percent, to finish at 1,775.32. The Nasdaq
Composite <.IXIC> added 2.572 points or 0.06 percent, to close at
4,000.975.
For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 each lost 1.65 percent and the
Nasdaq fell 1.52 percent. It was the largest weekly percentage drop
for the indexes since August.
T-Mobile US <TMUS.N> shares jumped late in regular trading after a
Wall Street Journal report that Sprint <S.N> is mulling a bid for
its rival. T-Mobile US shares shot up 8.7 percent to close at $27.64
while Sprint gained 3.4 percent to end at $8.43. After the bell,
Sprint further extended its gain by 3.1 percent.
Shares of International Paper <IP.N> rose 3.6 percent to close at
$47.83 and led the gainers in the S&P 500's materials sector.
Jefferies said in a research note that there are signs of demand
pickup in containerboard, and the recent pullback in IP and others
has created a buying opportunity.
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In the energy sector, shares of Anadarko Petroleum Corp <APC.N> fell
6.4 percent to $78.31 a day after a U.S. judge ruled that Anadarko
and its Kerr-McGee unit acted with "intent to hinder" when they spun
off Tronox <TROX.N>, a paint materials company that later went
bankrupt. The judge ruled that Anadarko and Kerr-McGee should pay
billions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs. Tronox shares
gained 7.5 percent to $22.76.
Adobe Systems Inc <ADBE.O> climbed 12.8 percent to $60.89 a day
after the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat software reported a surge
in the number of subscribers to its Creative Cloud suite from the
previous quarter.
Twitter Inc <TWTR.N> shares rose 6.6 percent to a record closing
high of $59 a day after the company was forced to nix a change to
its "block" feature after users protested that the new policy
empowered perpetrators of online abuse.
Advancers beat decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of 4 to 3. On the
Nasdaq, about seven stocks rose for every five that fell.
About 5.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the
6.1 billion average so far this month, according to data from BATS
Global Markets.
(Editing by Jan Paschal)
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