Wall Street mixed ahead of earnings season
时间：2011-04-12 08:43:55
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NEW YORK, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street traded mixed on Monday as investors1(投资者) were cautious before the first-quarter earnings2 season and a series of uncertainties3 still lingered in the markets.
The three major indexes wavered between gains and losses for the whole trading session on Monday as the first-quarter earnings reports were around the corner and the high oil price, disasters in Japan and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and North Africa still remained big threats to the markets.
Investors expected good first-quarter performance from listed companies, with Alcoa to kick off this earnings season by releasing its first-quarter results after Monday's closing bell.
The shares of the
aluminum4 giant went higher earlier in the day, but headed south after lunch time. Alcoa dropped nearly 1 percent in Monday's trading.
The International
Monetary5 Fund (IMF) said on Monday the U.S. economy will expand at a slower pace of 2.8 percent this year, down 0.2 percent from its previous estimate in January.
The Washington-based agency also cut Japan's growth
projection6 to 1.4 percent from 1.6 percent, as the country was hit by a
devastating7 earthquake and
tsunami8 last month.
U.S. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders successfully
averted9 a government shutdown late Friday, lifting investors' confidence in the U.S. economy. However, another strong earthquake hit Japan on Monday morning, which still constituted
unstable10 factors to the stock markets.
Meanwhile, NYSE Euronext said on Sunday that its board has
decided11 to turn down the 11.3-billion-dollar takeover offer by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange, claiming that it would stick with its
previous（先前的早前的） agreement to be purchased by German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse for 10 billion dollars.
Some
analysts12 worried that it would raise antitrust concerns if Deutsche Boerse and NYSE created one big stock exchange.
U.S. crude oil dropped from a 30-month high on Monday and the U. S. dollar traded mixed against major currencies in late New York trading on Monday.
Moreover, China announced a quarterly trade
deficit13 of 1.02 billion dollars, the first time in seven years.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.06 points, or 0.01 percent, to 12,381.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 shed 3.71 points, or 0.28 percent, to 1,324.46. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 8.91 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,771.51.（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）
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