The week on Wall Street came to an end rather quietly despite high profile news from a couple major banks. Some of Goldman Sachs’ largest shareholders have urged the company to shrink its bonus pool and pass along more to investors, while. Morgan Stanley closed the books on its disastrous acquisition of Crescent Real Estate Equities, turning the company over to lender Barclays. Elsewhere, the bidding war over Cadbury heated up as Hershey was under pressure to make a bid to rival the offer entered by Kraft.
The ETFdb 60 Index lost 2.02 points to close at 1,013.36 in unusually light trading. Forty of the index’s components finished the day in the red as the benchmark recorded its third straight losing session.
Copper finished the week strong, and the iPath DJ-UBS Copper Total Return ETN (JJC) climbed 1.0% on the day. Copper prices got a boost Friday from a threat of supply disruptions in Chile, as reports surfaced that the Federation of Miners threatened to halt work at mines owned by BHP Billiton. The mining group is reportedly interested in showing solidarity with a strike at the company’s Spence copper mine, which is now in its 39th day.
Leading decliners on Friday was the Vanguard European ETF (VGK), which finished down 1.2% following a surprise announcement from the European Central Bank tightening standards for accepting new asset-backed securities as collateral. The move, which is being viewed as the first step towards unwinding the massive financial stimulus initiatives enacted over the last two years, spooked some investors who see rate hikes as a logical follow-up measure.
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
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