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Brokeback Straw
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 6986
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 7:34 am: | 
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Clinton recession is nothing but a distant memory!
NEW YORK -- Stocks rose Wednesday on some upbeat corporate news, with the Dow Jones industrial average hitting a new five-year high.
The Dow climbed 81.96 points, to 11,317.43, its highest level since May 21, 2001. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 7.81, to 1305.04. The Nasdaq composite index gained 9.12, to 2303.35. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks increased $8.75, to $744.85.
Buying was strong: Advancers led decliners by more than a 2-1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange and by nearly that ratio on the Nasdaq stock market.
Bonds rose, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note falling to 4.70 percent from 4.72 percent late Tuesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies. Gold prices fell.
A barrel of crude oil for May delivery settled at $61.77, down 57 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April gasoline futures plunged 10.3 cents, or 6 percent, to close at $1.7365 a gallon.
One broker said the drop in gasoline futures came despite shrinking supplies last week because the market is confident that, with refining activity climbing, more motor fuel is on the way.
"The market is looking ahead," said Andrew Lebow, a broker for Man Financial in New York.
With no major economic reports to digest, the market was driven by news from large-cap stocks.
Bristol-Myers jumped nearly 11 percent after the drugmaker announced an agreement to settle a patent challenge. Its stock was upgraded after the announcement.
The American Stock Exchange pharmaceutical index had its biggest jump since Jan. 3, climbing 2 percent.
Investors were also cheered after Morgan Stanley's quarterly profit rose 17 percent.
"We have felt all along profits would come in better than expected" in 2006, said Keith Wirtz, chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati. "What has been shown backs up our view."
Transportation stocks rose after General Motors and partsmaker Delphi announced a deal with the United Auto Workers that would help the struggling companies cut costs by offering buyouts to 113,000 U.S. hourly workers.
Tech stocks were mixed a day after Microsoft said it would delay the launch of the consumer version of its new operating system until January.
"The news from Microsoft is a significant negative, but clearly the market isn't buckling with that announcement," said Bob Sitko, a lead portfolio manager with USAA Private Investment Management. "I'm quite pleased the markets have hung in as well as they have."
An on-time release of Windows Vista would have been an opportunity for Microsoft "to move up out of this malaise it's been in for quite a while," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald LP in San Francisco.
Microsoft's shares have underperformed against the S&P 500 since 2002.
Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, said she was heartened by FedEx Corp.'s 35 percent jump in third-quarter profits.
"The flow of goods is still happening around the world," she said. "That can only point to good things for the global economy."
The New York Times fell 49 cents, to $25.30, after the media company said it expects lower profits in the first quarter and reported uneven advertising results for February amid weakness at its New England media group, which includes the Boston Globe.
The market slid from near five-year highs earlier this week as a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and a report on producer prices rekindled the interest-rate concern. The central bank meets next week to decide whether to raise its target interest rate for a 15th straight time.
But stock indexes rebounded as investors chose to focus on the improving outlook for the auto and drug industries and look past Microsoft's drop.
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LibraryLady(ncjanow)
Supporter
Username: Librarylady
Post Number: 3150
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 3:59 pm: |
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What a difference a day makes...
Blue chips lead declines
Dow retreats from near 5-year highs as investors worry about oil prices, higher interest rates.
March 23, 2006: 3:23 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks fell Thursday afternoon, with investors worrying about interest rate hikes amid a jump in home sales, rising oil prices and higher bond yields.
The Dow Jones industrial average (down 68.12 to 11,249.31, Charts) lost about 0.5 percent, with roughly 40 minutes left in the session, while the Nasdaq composite (down 8.36 to 2,294.99, Charts) and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (down 4.44 to 1,300.60, Charts) index both lost about 0.3 percent.
In addition to the day's news, the stock market may be primed for some declines regardless, due to it's recent advances. The Dow rose to its highest level in nearly five years Wednesday as part of a broad advance and the S&P is not far from five-year highs.
"A decline at this point is not unexpected," said Paul Rabbit, president at Rabbit Capital Management. "We've pushed into territory where the market is only expecting the best-case scenario, so we're vulnerable to headline news."
On Thursday, those headlines included the read on housing and the jump in oil prices.
Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers edged winners by a narrow margin on volume of 1.17 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners barely beat advancers as 1.67 billion shares changed hands.
Worried about rate hikes
Existing home sales posted their biggest jump in two years. That may have revived worries about the pace of economic growth and higher rates.
The concern is that If housing remains strong and the economy is more robust than it seems, that may lead to pricing pressure and a Fed that would raise rates more aggressively than investors have been expecting.
Investors are particularly rate-sensitive ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting, at which the central bank is expected to boost its key short-term interest rate to 4.75 percent from 4.5 percent.
Treasury prices fell after the report, boosting the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.73 percent from around 4.70 percent late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Adding to pricing pressure woes was a jump in oil prices.
U.S. light crude oil for May delivery jumped $2.14 to $63.91 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a jump of roughly 3.5 percent. The gain was sparked by supply worries after Eni, an Italian oil firm, said it would not honor contracts on its Nigerian exports.
On the move
What was bad for the overall market was still good for the underlying stocks, at least in terms of oil and housing.
The spike in oil prices dragged on overall sentiment, but gave a boost to oil stocks. The Philadelphia Oil Service (Charts) sector index jumped 2.2 percent.
Although the strong housing report sparked overall inflation worries, it boosted home builder stocks. The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction (up $31.50 to $893.84, Research) index added 3.8 percent.
Strength in oil and housing stocks helped offset weakness in the rest of the market.
Adobe Systems (down $0.31 to $36.31, Research) warned late Wednesday that its current-quarter earnings and revenue could miss forecasts. That overshadowed the company's otherwise strong fiscal first-quarter results.
Adobe shares were modestly lower, after having fallen 3 percent in the morning.
A number of other software makers slid too, sending the Goldman Sachs Software (Charts) index down by 0.7 percent.
A number of other large technology shares declined as well, including Microsoft (down $0.39 to $26.76, Research) and IBM (down $1.40 to $83.05, Research), which both lost more than 1 percent.
Providing some strength for technology, was Yahoo! The Internet search engine was upgraded by UBS to "buy" from "neutral," due to a variety of positive near-term factors, Reuters reported. Yahoo! (up $1.07 to $31.82, Research) shares gained over 3 percent.
General Motors (down $0.25 to $21.76, Research) said it finished the sale of a majority stake in its GMAC Commercial Holding Corp., that earns it $9 billion in cash. Shares initially rose on the news, but then turned negative.
On Wednesday, the troubled automaker said it reached an early retirement deal with bankrupt parts supplier Delphi (Research) and its auto workers union.
Investors also took in a report showing a bigger-than-expected decline in weekly jobless claims last week.
COMEX gold for April delivery fell 80 cents to $550.90 an ounce
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Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 6064
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 4:29 pm: |
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touche LL!!! |
Brokeback Straw
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 6991
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 4:33 pm: |
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Duncan likes when the market has a bad day? Nothing like rooting against Americans. |
Alleygater
Citizen
Username: Alleygater
Post Number: 1419
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 5:04 pm: |
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Straw you're the one who said that it's a bad day for libs that the market is doing well. What you did right there is called PROJECTION. Grow up would you. |
kathy
Citizen
Username: Kathy
Post Number: 1281
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 6:30 pm: |
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The Dow climbed 81.96 points, to 11,317.43, its highest level since May 21, 2001:
In other words, within a few months of GWB's first taking office, the market entered a slump from which it is only now, 5 years later, recovering. Oh happy day! |
Brokeback Straw
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 6993
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 7:00 pm: |
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exactly, Clinton led recession corrected..
libs.. |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 4607
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 8:41 pm: |
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Funny how the "Bush I" recession (like almost all recessions) only lasted a year or so into the next president's term, but the "Clinton" recession has gone on for five. I wonder why that is.
"Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over..." |
MichaelaM
Citizen
Username: Mayquene
Post Number: 136
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 - 10:36 pm: |
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Those who favor lower taxes say it will grow the economy and increase jobs. Let's say that's a given. But what's the cost? A $9 billion deficit. That comes out to what, about $30,000+ a person, yes? |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 1822
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 - 12:09 am: |
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Yo-ho-ho:
Market's really rocking, maybe not skyrocketing. Today's closes:
Dow 11,270.29 -47.14 (-0.42%)
Nasdaq 2,300.15 -3.20 (-0.14%)
S&P 500 1,301.67 -3.37 (-0.26%)
10-Yr Bond 4.739% +0.04
NYSE Volume 1,999,367,000
Nasdaq Volume 2,023,894,000
Unless you've been in the business, it never really occurs to you that what goes up, must come down. And that what people give credit to politicians for, is in fact the result of a continuous daily crapshoot.
But, hey, what is Bush's war in Iraq, and his handling of the economy, and his plan for our porous borders, if not a continuous daily crapshoot? So I get the "analogy" that Brokeback Straw was trying to peddle in this thread like a cheap watch on 8th and 42nd. |
Foj
Citizen
Username: Foger
Post Number: 1034
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 24, 2006 - 7:14 pm: |
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Greenspan called it a bubble, I guess the bubble is back. |
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