Sector Investing

[ReturntoSender]

1:20 pm : U.S. equity markets remain closed as Hurricane Sandy approaches New York City. Note that the markets will also be closed tomorrow.

The European session has now ended, and all key bourses registered losses.

France's CAC settled lower by 0.8% and defensive telecom and utility stocks lagged throughout the session. Alcatel-Lucent and Vivendi lost 3.3% and 1.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, Veolia Environnement fell 4.8% after the company was reported to be looking into a capital increase in order to lower debt. Among the advancers, tire maker Michelin gained 1.3%, and was the top performer on the CAC.

Germany's DAX slipped 0.4%. ThyssenKrupp slid 3.8%, and was the worst performer after the steelmaker asked interested parties to resubmit offers for its American unit after initial bids were deemed too low. Chemical producer Linde gained 2.4% on strong earnings.

In the United Kingdom, the FTSE shed 0.2% and financials showed broad weakness. Insurer Hargreaves lost 4.2% after Citigroup downgraded the stock to ‘sell' from ‘neutral.' Admiral Group and Old Mutual settled lower by 2.1% and 1.6%, respectively. Technology stocks showed strength as ARM Holdings and Sage Group saw respective gains of 1.4% and 1.8%.

Greece's Athens Stock Exchange was a notable outlier as the index lost 6.3%. Earlier, a story out of Germany's Der Spiegel indicated private bondholders may have to face some losses. Financials saw significant pressure as Bank of Spain, National Bank of Greece, and Piraeus bank all lost between 14.9% and 18.6%.

Italy's 10-yr yield added 11 basis points and it currently sits at 5.019%. Meanwhile, Spain's 10-yr benchmark yield edged up six basis points, to 5.656%.

The euro trades near its session low against the dollar as the currency pair trades at 1.2892.

http://finance.yahoo.com/marketupdate/update