US Market Update

Wednesday, the US stock markets closed flat with investors still confident of an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve in the next week, but the crude oil topped $80 a barrel and a reduced forecast of the third quarter from Texas Instruments Inc., the world''s largest maker of cell-phone chips has led the investors to book profits in the market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 16.74 points to close at 13,291.65. The S&P 500 (SPX) index increased marginally by 0.07 points to close at 1,471.56 and the NASDAQ Composite (RIXF) fell 5.40 points to close at 2,592.07.Among the Dow''s 30 components, 12 components closed in negative territory while the remaining closed in positive territory.

A total of 1.9bn shares were traded on the NASDAQ, while declines outpaced the advances by 3 to 1. On NYSE around 1.3bn shares traded for the day, with declines outpaced the advances by 9 to 7.

Crude oil prices closed at $79.91per barrel higher by $1.68 in NYME. Crude oil prices crude oil for October delivery touched $80 a barrel for the first time ever. That spike was driven by the government''s report that oil inventories fell in the latest week of reporting by 7.01 million barrels. Analysts had been expecting a drawdown of only 2.7 million barrels.