Although it was not a broad-based advance, stocks closed yesterday on the plus side for the sixth consecutive day. With little news, investors keyed off of the foreign markets, which had been firm before the U.S. market opening. Retail stocks were strong throughout the session with Internet retailers doing well following reports from MasterCard Advisors’ [...]
After six consecutive days of gains, the main indices closed slightly lower yesterday in a disinterested session, which was reflected in the low volume on each exchange. Stocks started off higher and the U.S. dollar lower, but as the day wore on the dollar picked up buyers and stocks sagged. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence [...]
It is unlikely that anyone would call the marginal buying of late yesterday afternoon a rally, but the main indices did close slightly higher. The market spent most of the day on the minus side due to mixed economic news and fear that the markets would find it difficult to match this year’s performance in [...]
The first session of the new year sprang to life as the key indices continued last year’s December breakout with a burst to new 52-week highs. The punch to new highs was broad based, including 27 of the 30 stocks of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), including the financial, pharmaceutical, technology, energy and materials [...]
After Monday’s explosion through 12-month highs, stocks treaded water yesterday as traders caught their breath and appraised the current state of the market. And their evaluation apparently singled out the financial group as a source of value. Following an upgrade of Barclays (BCS) by Deutsche Bank, the stock jumped 5.6% and the sector gained 1.7%, [...]
Without some strong buying in the commodity-based stocks yesterday, the market would have fallen to a minus due to weakness in the large technology stocks. But buying in precious metals and energy helped to stabilize the stock market, and the U.S. dollar again fell versus a basket of world currencies. The market was held back [...]
On Thursday, stocks again had some rough early moments, but after falling 50 points on the opening they rallied, and by 11 a.m. were back to breakeven. The remainder of the day saw some buying in the financials, and that helped offset profit-taking in the materials group, so by the end of the day most [...]
Stocks started on the minus side Friday following a disappointing monthly report that showed non-farm payrolls falling by 85,000 where analysts had expected a flat reading. But a revision of the November numbers showed an increase of 4,000 jobs, and in the minds of buyers that seemed to offset the disappointing December report, especially since [...]
After six days of gains for the market, investors had heightened expectations yesterday for the first Q4 earnings report from a key company Alcoa (AA). But following the market close on Monday, Alcoa failed to meet analysts’ estimates, and the market showed its displeasure with a broad sell-off. Almost every S&P sector registered a loss [...]
Stocks rallied on a broad front yesterday, taking back most of Tuesday’s losses. The rally was led by the financial and health care stocks, which rose 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively. The rally in the bank stocks occurred even as their CEOs were being grilled on Capitol Hill by a Congress intent on laying blame for [...]
