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Stocks opened mixed on Tuesday with a surprise announcement from the People’s Bank of China. China initiated a quarter percentage point hike in interest rates raising it’s benchmark one-year lending rate to 6.31%. The measure, which took investors by surprise, is a part of China’s continuing effort to control the country’s rapid growth. China was not the only country in the spotlight today as Portugal draws attention to the continuing debt crisis in Europe. Moody’s Investors Service downgrade Portugal’s debt rating two weeks after the resignation of Portugal’s Prime Minister due to uncertainty in the political outlook of the country. Investors will look for additional indicators to be revealed regarding the European economy on Thursday when the European Central Bank is set to meet. On the economic calendar for today investors were disappointed by the most recent reading on the service sector from the Institute for Supply Management. Economists anticipated the reading to fall from 59.7 in February to 59.5 for March but the actual reading fell below expectations at 57.3. The Federal Reserve is expected to release it’s minutes from the March 15th policy meeting at 2 p.m. today. At mid day the major market indexes are mixed. The Dow gained 21.00 points or 0.17% to 12421.03. The Nasdaq rose 13.04 points or 0.47% to 2802.32. The S&P 500 increased by 3.46 points or 0.26% to 1336.38. The U.S. Treasuries 10-year yield increased 0.04 to 3.47%. Oil dropped 0.23 to $108.24 a barrel. Author: Pamela Frost
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