Markets Trade on a Flat Note

The Global Markets opened mixed this morning. U.S. stocks fell, dragging the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down from a two year high, after a six-day rally left the benchmark gauge trading at its most expensive level since June and a surge in bond yields fuelled concern that borrowing costs will increase. European stocks declined, snapping the longest stretch of gains in six months, after Moody’s Investors Service put Spain’s debt rating on review for a possible downgrade. This morning Asian stocks fluctuated as information-technology companies rose after an industry official said prices of some memory chips may climb, while Mitsui & Co. led commodity companies lower after metal prices dropped. In commodities, Crude oil traded near a one-week high after a government report showed U.S. stockpiles declined the most since 2002 and refiners boosted fuel output in the world’s biggest crude consumer. Gold, trading little changed, may decline as further signs of an economic recovery in the U.S. and mounting concern about European sovereign debt boost the dollar, hurting demand for the metal as an alternative asset. Copper prices fell the most in three weeks in New York as a potential downgrade of Spain’s credit rating revived concern that Europe’s debt crisis will worsen, hampering the global economic rebound. After an opening in the green, the markets lost steam and slipped into the red and touched an intra-day low of 19,618. However, the Sensex recovered quickly to regain the lost territory. The Sensex is up 37 points at 19,685 while the Nifty is flat at 5,891.