Stocks: Monday’s review

Most Asian shares outside Japan rose after Chinese industrial profits increased for a fourth month. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average, which on Jan. 25 capped its longest streak of weekly gains in more than 40 years, fell as Fanuc Corp. and Hitachi High-Technologies Corp. cut profit forecasts.

Nikkei 225 10,824.31 -102.34 -0.94%

Hang Seng 23,671.88 +91.45 +0.39%

S&P/ASX 200 Closed

Shanghai Composite 2,346.51 +55.20 +2.41%

Anhui Conch Cement Co. led increases among Chinese makers of the material in Hong Kong after Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. recommended the sector.

Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. both climbed more than 3.5 percent on a report China may lift a ban on imports of game consoles.

Fanuc and Hitachi High-Tech each slumped more than 6.6 percent in Tokyo.

European stocks were little changed near a 23-month high as U.S. reports showed that durable-goods orders increased in the world’s largest economy while pending sales of houses declined.

SBM Offshore NV (SBMO) rose 3.4 percent after Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation for the stock. Debenhams Plc (DEB), the second-largest U.K. department-store chain, dropped 2.9 percent after Morgan Stanley cut its rating of the shares.

The Stoxx 600 slipped 0.1 percent to 289.36 at the close.

Orders for durable goods in the U.S., the European Union’s largest trading partner, climbed 4.6 percent in December, a Commerce Department report in Washington showed. Economists survey had forecast a gain of 2 percent.

A separate release from the National Association of Realtors showed its index of contracts for the purchase of previously owned homes fell 4.3 percent to 101.7 last month after a revised 1.6 percent increase in the prior month. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey projected no change in the gauge.

Chinese industrial companies’ profits rose 17 percent to 895 billion yuan ($144 billion) in December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday in Beijing.

National benchmark indexes gained in 11 of the 18 western European markets.

FTSE 100 6,294.41 +9.96 +0.16% CAC 40 3,780.89 +2.73 +0.07% DAX 7,833 -24.97 -0.32%

SBM Offshore gained 3.4 percent to 12.01 euros, a four- month high. The largest maker of floating oil-and-gas platforms was raised to equal weight, a rating similar to neutral, from underweight at Morgan Stanley.

ASML Holding NV added 2.8 percent to 56.23 euros, the highest price since it sold shares to the public in March 1995. Europe’s largest semiconductor-equipment supplier was raised to buy from neutral at Citigroup Inc, citing limited risk associated with capital spending by ASML’s customers.

TNT Express NV advanced 3.3 percent to 5.69 euros after UBS AG upgraded the shares to buy from neutral. The Dutch delivery company’s new management will swiftly act to fix or sell its Brazilian and Chinese operations, UBS said.

Debenhams dropped 2.9 percent to 102.2 pence as Morgan Stanley cut its recommendation on the shares to equal weight from overweight. The brokerage lowered its rating on the U.K. general retail industry to “cautious” and said analysts’ estimates for the industry’s profit growth in 2013 are too high.

Indexes finished trading mixed trends, helped by strong data on orders for durable goods and confounding expectations data on the U.S. housing market.

As shown by data released in December orders for durable goods rose by 4.6%, which was significantly higher than forecast (+1.8%). Orders excluding transportation also had higher expectations: 1.3% vs. 0.8%.

Negative impact on the index was published data on pending transactions of purchase / sale of homes in the U.S., which recorded a decline of -4.3% in December, compared to growth of 1.7% in November. The median forecast was at +0.5%

This is the third report on the U.S. housing market over the last month, which comes out worse than expected, indicating a possible delay in the recovery. On Friday, weaker than expected were data on home sales in the primary market in the U.S.. Before that, on Tuesday, 22 January, not met the expectations of the data on existing home sales in the U.S. market. While the market sees this trend as a temporary slowdown, but if this trend continues in the future, this could have a material adverse impact on the markets, perhaps even causing the correction after recent gains.

Growth indices also constrain ambiguous data quarterly report Caterpillar (CAT). CAT profits in the last reporting quarter was higher than expected, but sales did not reach the level expected by analysts. The company said that by the end of the 1st quarter of 2013 earnings and revenue will be significantly lower than the same period last year.

DOW index components show a mixed trend. At the moment, the leader shares in Caterpillar (CAT, +1.88%). Maximum loss carry stock Alcoa (AA, -1.44%).

All sectors of the index S & P, but two are in the red zone. The maximum loss is the basic materials sector (-0.5%). Grows only technology sector (+0.4%) and sector conglomerates (0.1%).

At the close:

Dow -13.67 13,882.31 -0.10%

Nasdaq +4.59 3,154.30 +0.15%

S & P -2.78 1,500.18 -0.18%