-Last day of the year today for many mutual funds
-Weather could affect elections, some say
-Apple at 200 day moving average support
-Lock-up expiry today on Facebook
-Eurozone news weighing on stocks
-Corn futures rising 2 per cent

Dow Jones Industrial: -0.09%
Nasdaq Comp.: -0.37%
S&P 500: 0.00%

Wall Street is now trading in a slightly mixed fashion, weighed down by the negative news-flow coming out of the Eurozone and weakness in shares Apple.

Germany´s Finance Minister reportedly said that it is unlikely that the Troika of international lenders will receive the final report on Greece before the next Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers on November 11th to 12th.

While it will take time to return to normality in Big Apple a modicum of it seems to have been achieved today on the trading floors, with few glitches reported although a few market operators were said to be running on back-up power or through back-up systems.

Sandy and weather could yet affect elections?

Acting as a backdrop, there is keen interest in whether the weather or the fall-out from hurricane Sandy will affect the election results, given how close the contenders are running in the polls. In fact, Sandy may already be affecting early voting results. Furthermore, the possibility exists for states like Virginia to postpone voting by up to 14 days, the Financial Times writes today.

Apple weighs on all

Apple is off after its Chief Executive today announced a partial re-organization of the company´s top ranks.

GM and Ford have both released better than expected quarterly results. Of interest as well, Home Depot and Lowe´s are expected to do well, in anticipation that they will benefit from repair and reconstruction efforts.

Walt Disney is to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.03bn.

According to some reports Microsoft will finally not be making an offer for Netflix.

Not to be lost sight of either, investors are also keen to see next Friday´s monthly employment report.

Of interest, today is the last day of the month and of the year for some mutual funds, with the next two months being historically quite positive for shares, as funds seek to re-position themselves.

NAPM Chicago below 50
The employment cost index for the third quarter showed a 0.4% quarter-on-quarterly gain in the three months to September, slightly below the 0.5% economists had foreseen.

The Chicago NAPM regional manufacturing sector purchasing managers´ index for the month of October has come in at 49.9 (just below the contractionary level of 50), versus last month´s reading of 49.7 (Consensus: 51). The new orders sub-index however actually moved up, to 50.6 from 47.4 in September.

For economists at Barclays Research: "(...) In our view, current levels of correlation are not consistent with recessionary conditions, and we believe that local trends will play a more prominent role in these regional indices over the medium term."

Consultancy ADP has revised down its estimate for September private sector payrolls to 88,200, from 162,000 before, due to the application of a new methodology.

Little movement in other asset classes
10 year US Treasuries are falling by 4/32 dollars this morning, with yields left standing at 1.69%.

Front month West Texas crude futures are rising by 0.47% to the 86.08 dollar level on the NYMEX.



S&P 500 - Risers
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $79.24 +13.88%
Quanta Services Inc. (PWR) $25.93 +9.87%
Genworth Financial Inc. (GNW) $5.96 +8.76%
Ford Motor Co. (F) $11.16 +7.72%
Federated Investors Inc. (FII) $23.24 +5.49%
Eaton Corp. (ETN) $47.22 +4.65%
Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG) $26.53 +4.45%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $12.35 +3.69%
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) $11.41 +3.54%
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) $68.81 +3.49%

S&P 500 - Fallers
Western Union Co. (WU) $12.73 -29.01%
QEP Resources Inc (QEP) $29.00 -7.88%
JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU) $9.69 -6.15%
VeriSign Inc. (VRSN) $37.07 -5.89%
Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) $62.79 -5.85%
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (JCP) $24.01 -5.70%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $90.38 -5.12%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $20.39 -3.59%
Metropcs Communications Inc. (PCS) $10.21 -3.59%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $26.91 -3.48%

Dow Jones I.A - Risers
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $61.38 +2.23%
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) $9.32 +2.19%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $41.68 +1.26%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $28.54 +1.17%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $84.81 +0.66%
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) $194.53 +0.65%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) $91.17 +0.61%
American Express Co. (AXP) $55.97 +0.39%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $37.18 +0.38%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $86.80 +0.10%

Dow Jones I.A - Fallers
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $24.87 -2.20%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $49.12 -1.92%
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) $13.85 -1.70%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $44.52 -1.46%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $21.63 -1.46%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $45.63 -1.13%
Boeing Co. (BA) $70.44 -0.94%
Alcoa Inc. (AA) $8.57 -0.92%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $70.94 -0.87%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $110.24 -0.84%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $79.24 +13.88%
Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM) $7.93 +4.69%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $12.35 +3.69%
Fastenal Co. (FAST) $44.70 +3.38%
Flextronics International Ltd. (FLEX) $5.77 +1.94%
Apollo Group Inc. (APOL) $20.08 +1.83%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $121.07 +1.77%
Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY) $43.42 +1.76%
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) $7.89 +1.74%
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) $98.43 +1.54%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $106.73 -6.25%
VeriSign Inc. (VRSN) $37.07 -5.89%
Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) $62.79 -5.85%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $90.38 -5.12%
NetApp Inc. (NTAP) $26.91 -3.48%
Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB) $138.21 -3.30%
Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) $28.09 -2.87%
Monster Beverage Corp (MNST) $44.65 -2.64%
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) $48.28 -2.58%
Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) $38.00 -2.54%

AB

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