Today's economic data failed to rally the markets as it appears that some buying exhaustion is once again entering the fray. The good news is that the Fed's Beige Book turned almost positive. We also saw oil prices weak after a large build up in crude inventories. Unfortunately, stocks tend to follow oil and act inversely against the US Dollar now. Still, today was one of those days that traders were unsure where the markets were going to close until right at the end of the day after the last big imbalance orders were seen.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,444.14 -27.44 (-0.26%)
S&P 500 1,109.23 +0.37 (0.03%)
Nasdaq 2,185.03 +9.22 (0.42%)
Top Day Trader Stocks
Top 10 Analyst Calls
StemCells Inc. (STEM) was one of today's top gainers. The NIH did not make a ruling for the company, but it did approve 13 new stem cell lines and is reviewing close to 100 more. Shares were up over 25% at $1.36 late in the day.
ConocoPhillips (COP) was down with oil prices today. The integrated oil company was down over 1% at $51.68 late in the day after the company announced a cutback of the 2010 cap-ex budget by 20%.
Bank of America (BAC) was weak with the sector today, but now it seems that replacement candidates for that CEO job which nobody wants to take are more leaning toward a break-up of the bank. Shares were down 1.6% at $15.63 late in the day.
Origin Agritech (SEED) learned a lesson about gravity today as shares finally pulled back after a meteoric rise based on its modified corn approval in recent sessions. This was down over 10% at $12.29 late in the trading day.
CIENA (CIEN) was up over 5% at $12.98 late in the trading day after a rival bid from the Nokia-Siemens joint venture that was supposed to be 5% higher for the Nortel optical unit. This would keep Ciena from leveraging its future so much.
Jon Ogg is a partner and editor of 24/7 Wall St.
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