Unremarkable moves on Wall Street

Venezuela Star Wednesday 8th February, 2012

U.S. stocks spent the day see-sawing Wednesday as events in Greece kept industrial stocks on edge, while the geek-sector was helped by the record $5 billion IPO for Facebook.

Shares in the oil and gas sector declined in the face of a build-up in U.S. inventories.

The Greeks have shown reluctance to undertake harsh economic measures which the European Union and the IMF are insisting on as conditions for a new, enhanced bail-out package - which if not approved by March will result in Greece defaulting on tis government debt.

Markets around the world have been frustrated by the protractedness of the negotiations.

"It is going to be a drawn-out process like it has been, but the market has been looking beyond that," Tim Ghriskey, investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, New York, was quoted by Reuters Thomson as saying.

At the close of trading Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5.75 points or 0.04% at 12,883.95.

The Nasdaq Composite was ahead 11.78 points or 0.41% at 2,915.86.

The Standard and Poors 500 was up 2.91 points or 0.22% at 1,349.96.

The U.S. dollar was little changed on foreign exchange markets.

Around the New York close Wednesday the euro was at 1.3260.

The British pound was weaker at 1.5820. The Swiss franc was little changed at 0.9126.

The Australian dollar dipped slightly to 1.0792.

The Canadian dollar was motionless at 0.9959 while the New Zealand dollar was also treading water at 0.8346.

The Japanese yen was weaker at 77.01.