FKLI Related News (Mon, Mar 18)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slipped on Friday, ending the Dow Jones industrial average's longest winning streak since 1996 as investors paused just below the S&P 500's record high. A decline in JPMorgan Chase shares after the bank was hit by a one-two punch of bad news also weighed on the market. Equities have rallied since the start of the year on signs of improvement in the economy and supported by the Federal Reserve's efforts to bolster the recovery.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 and one of the biggest weights on the Dow, falling 1.9 percent to $50.02. The Federal Reserve told JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) that they must fix flaws in how they determine capital payouts to shareholders, though the central bank still approved their plans for share buybacks and dividends. A Senate report alleged that JPMorgan had ignored risks, misled investors, fought with regulators and tried to work around rules as it dealt with mushrooming losses in a derivatives portfolio.

A busy day of economic reports reinforced investors' view that the economic recovery has momentum to it. Manufacturing output bounced back in February, though the pace of manufacturing growth in New York state cooled slightly in March and consumer sentiment fell.The S&P 500 retail sector index (.SPXRT) lost 0.8 percent after the consumer sentiment data from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan. Consumer prices registered their biggest increase in nearly four years as the cost of gasoline rose. But a smaller gain in the core U.S. Consumer Price Index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, left the door open for the Federal Reserve to continue its bond-buying program, which has contributed to the stock market's rally.          [Reuters]

Stocks on Bursa Malaysia ended broadly lower last Friday with persistent selling in heavyweights, led by Maybank. FKLI spot month contract opened lower this morning at 1,618 as Dow retreats from 10-day rally. Today’s Support  and Resistance for March contract is located around 1600 and 1620 respectively.