- Commentary -

September 24, 2009 (FinancialWire) (By Philip Holmes) — Stocks ended down on Wednesday following a two-day meeting of the Fed’s open market committee summarized with words of optimism about economic recovery, but unchanged interest rate targets. Also, it’s time to feel sympathy for workers at Indian outsourcing giants like Wipro (NYSE: WIT).

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 81.32 points on the trading day, to end at 9,748.55. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index shed 10.79 points, to close at 1,060.87, while the Nasdaq composite index finished at 2,131.42, down 14.88 points.

Investors were eager to hear from the Federal Reserve, whose Open Market Committee ended a two-day meeting on Wednesday. The assessment: recovery is underway in the U.S. economy but we’ll keep going along as if it might not be.

The target range for the federal funds rate will stay put at 0 to 0.25%, given the committee’s assessment that inflation is “subdued”. The Fed will also extend, from Q4 2009 through the first quarter of 2010, its program to purchase $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage-backed securities and $200 billion of agency debt.

So, the Fed is slowing its rate of intervention while keeping the main pieces of the program intact. Nothing radical here — the big guns of stimulus will not be turned into ploughshares - but the sense of urgency has somewhat abated.

Have you been envious of Indian IT workers during the recession? Maybe you should re-think. As Mehul Srivastava reports in BusinessWeek, India’s big IT outsourcing firms have been freezing or scaling back employee pay, even for experienced engineers.

As Srivastava reports, “For Indian engineers with two to five years of experience, the past 12 months actually saw them lose nearly 7% of their income.”

That’s quite a turnaround from the days when these firms couldn’t hire engineers fast enough to keep up with growing demand, and wages rose in double digits annually.

But big Indian players like Infosys and Wipro saw big drop-offs in revenues as the global recession worked its ugly magic.

[Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=philip+holmes to see more commentaries by Philip Holmes.]

FirstAlert(tm) “Money Index” is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ/AMEX 25 Most Actives and NYSE/NASDAQ/AMEX greatest Percentage Losers and Percentage Winners (weighted against pure monetary loss/gain) indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing, as well as the general focus of the market. Of the Most Actives, last session’s trading showed 7 advancers versus 18 decliners. Volume leaders were led by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) trading 82,415,000 shares closing at $4.52 (down 2.6%), the SPDR Trust ETF (NYSE: SPY) trading 52,963,407 shares closing at $106.18 (down 0.8%) and the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 (NASDAQ: QQQQ) trading 52,520,187 shares closing at $42.45 (down 0.5%). Of last session’s Greatest Percentage Losers, stocks taking the greatest monetary losses were led by ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (NASDAQ: ATPG) trading on volume of 2,500,290 shares (losing $158.9 million), Gaylord Entertainment Co. (NYSE: GET) trading on volume of 718,700 shares (losing $145.5 million) and China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. (NYSE: NPD) trading on volume of 177,200 shares (losing $101.0 million). Of last session’s Greatest Percentage Winners, stocks making the greatest monetary gains were led by YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) trading on volume of 6,940,392 shares (gaining $87.7 million), China BAK Battery, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBAK) trading on volume of 769,733 shares (gaining $52.5 million) and Intersections Inc. (NASDAQ: INTX) trading on volume of 71,299 shares (gaining $21.3 million). [Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=%22%27Money+Index%27+Synopsis for all the most recent FirstAlert(tm) "Money Index" Synopses.]

The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Existing Home Sales for August (10 a.m.).

The FirstAlert(tm) Events Calendar showcases CNH, TRA @ Sterne, Agee AG Conference; DD Pioneer Investor Day; HL, MGN @ Silver Summit Investment Conference; HPQ Analyst Day.

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.fairtradefederation.org

Quote of the Day: “Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.” Horace Walpole

Today is: Punctuation Day, Territorial Day in New Caledonia, Heritage Day in South Africa, Republic Day in Trinidad and Tobago.

Happy Birthday: Horace Walpole, Sir Arthur Guinness, Tommy Armour, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jim McKay, Sheila MacRae, Jim Henson, Linda McCartney, Lou Dobbs, “Mean” Joe Greene.

Today in History: The Netherlands surrendered New Amsterdam to England in 1664. The United States Supreme Court, the position of Attorney General, and the United States Post Office Department were established in 1789. Gold prices plummeted in 1869 following Ulysses S. Grant’s order that the Treasury sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plotted to control the market. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the nation’s first National Monument in 1906. Earl Bascom and Weldon Bascom produced in 1935 the first rodeo ever held outdoors under electric lights at Columbia, Mississippi. The Honda Motor Company was founded in 1948. Bullwinkle and Rocky premiered in 1961. Hurricane Rita made landfall in the United States in 2005, devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of southwestern Louisiana.

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