The DJIA has not moved much since mid-month and today was no exception with all three major indexes close to flat.
The Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 52.9 for December, up from up from 50.6 in November. Both numbers are extremely low compared to a reading of closer to 90 in an expanding economy. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of home price rose a tiny .4% from September to October, but the most recent figure for the housing market was still down 7.3% from last year. Housing prices may be about to find a bottom, but, if so, the case for it is still shaky.
The market should have focused on the downward revision of Q3 GDP to 2.2%. When the benefits of "cash for clunkers" is taken out, the economy barely grew at all.
Stocks ended up being driven by good housing sales figures which were up 7.4% for November and equities were up for a third consecutive day. The market's movement between now and the end of the year will probably be driven by retail sales numbers, but there were few of those today.
The markets were slightly up most of the day, but traders seemed to be unsurprised by big news from Dubai and Citi. Many of the "most actives" only moved up or down a percentage point or two. It was not a day in which the market showed any conviction which was surprising given the number of potential catalysts early in the day.
The market continues to befuddle the bears as the third quarter earnings and stock prices continued to move in a positive direction.
During this period Washington has taken charge of the auto industry and helped prop it up with the "cash-for-clunkers" program. They continue to subsidize the real estate market with first-time home buyers incentives, and very low interest rates. The banks are being refueled by the Federal Reserve with interest rates as low as zero, while all the time currency stability has been sacrificed. This has driven gold prices to new highs.
This is the third review of my 2009 stock picks through September 30 (see: Chasing Value: 9 picks for 2009 -- APC, GE, ISRG, WFC and more). This years picks have annihilated index comparisons, so much so that I must attribute some of my good fortune to luck. However, I do believe the original reasoning was sound and the outlier nature of the gains certainly a result of an oversold market living in fear.
Wall Street watchers can be excused for feeling a little whipsawed this week. After watching stocks lose ground early in the week, they roared back Thursday, riding high on a bevy of upbeat earnings reports. That enthusiasm remains partially on display this morning with two of the three major U.S. stock indexes showing a positive opening ahead of the morning bell.
At about 7 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq Composite Index and S&P 500 were slightly higher, while the Dow Jones industrial average was down by about 4 points. The Dow gained 1.3% Thursday to close the session at 10,081.31, led by the strong earnings reports from five of the benchmark index's 30 component stocks.
Spurred on by strong earnings from JP Morgan Chase & Company and Intel, the Dow punched through the 10,000 mark today.
The Dow 10,000 is a psychological level. Very often traders pay attention to round numbers like 10,000. Breaking through often kicks off buy stops and that is an added push to the move. Traders also see strong earnings by two giant companies as a positive for the market and often follow along with the momentum.
Recapping, the market was last at 10,000 back in October when it broke that mark on the downside. The index is down 29.4% from its 2007 peak of 14,164.53.
Do you believe that the market will continue to move higher?
We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.
Here are a few of the names that moved higher during the day to set new 52 week highs.
The markets had a relatively flat day to start the week, but there were some big name stocks that traded up to new 52 week highs in today's session. The DOW was up 0.2%, NASDAQ was down 0.01%, while the S&P saw the most change, closing up 0.4%.
Here are a couple of the bigger names that traded up to new 52 week highs in today's trading.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC): Chipmaker Intel Corp. traded up to a new 52 week high today of $20.65. It set its 52 week low of $12.05 back on 2/23/09. The stock is trading higher today ahead of the company's third quarter earnings numbers, which are due out tomorrow following the market close. Analysts are expecting the company to show earnings of 27 cents per share. The company reported a loss of 7 cents per share for its second quarter. The stock closed the day up 1.1% at $20.40, up $0.23 on the day.
When the market started to crap the bed last year, hundreds of public companies were faced with the prospect of delisting due to their low share prices and market caps.
Because of the unusual nature of the circumstances -- and the fact that they had much bigger problems to devote resources to -- the NYSE and Nasdaq elected not to enforce minimum share price requirements temporarily. But now that the market has rallied, what about companies that haven't been able to get their share prices back up a bit?
The market opened sharply lower this morning anticipating, perhaps, unemployment data that was worse than the data turned out to be. The September unemployment rate rose to 9.8%, exactly what most observers had been expecting.
The markets tried to gain back more than all the early losses, with all three major indexes ending slightly down. Crude oil has fallen below $70/barrel again, and gold has broken through $1,000/oz again. It could just be the case that the nearly 60% run-up since March in the S&P 500 was just wishful thinking that the economy was turning around and that consumer spending would would tick up as things improved. That thinking has not been borne out yet, so markets are likely to wobble around until the consumer decides what to do -- save or spend. The holiday season could write the ending to the story.
The markets opened lower this morning and have continued to slide all day, mostly due to poor reports on manufacturing and unemployment. Still, for the third quarter both the DJIA and the S&P 500 indexes gained about 15%. Now, it appears that faith in an economic recovery is wobbling, primarily as a result of expected growth in unemployment and continuing low consumer spending. The federal stimulus program has pumped about $86 billion into the economy so far, but that hasn't been enough to shake loose tight-fisted lenders or cash-conserving consumers.
The Dow Jones Industrial average jumped about 125 points on Monday but has given back about two-thirds of that gain through trading so far today. The story with the S&P 500 index is similar, though not quite so severe: a giveback of about a quarter of Monday's gain. The NASDAQ Composite index is doing better, up about 3% so far today, to remain virtually even with Monday's gains. The indices are slowly gaining back some ground lost earlier this morning, so by the close of trading today, the markets could show a small gain.
Out of the chute this morning, the S&P/Case-Shiller index rose 1.2% in July and gave the market a nice uptick for a while. Then came the report from the Conference Board that its consumer confidence index for September fell to 53.1 from 54.5 in August. What was worse is that economists had estimated a rise to 57 for the month. The soft confidence number is almost certainly due to people worried about losing their jobs. Right now, it could be that traders are waiting for Friday's unemployment report before jumping one way or the other. The negative news won out and the indexes traded down most of the day.
Traders had on their rally caps today, and the DJIA moved as high as 9,823 as it renewed its ascent toward 10,000. The index moved back down a bit at the end of the day as traders got lazy during a session in which most of the news came before the bell.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) both announced deals today that pumped some air into the M&A business. Financial shares are mostly moving higher because increased M&A activity generally means more fees for financial services companies. Trading volume was light, mostly due to the Yom Kippur holiday today.
Bad housing numbers did not do much to hurt the market yesterday and good consumer sentiment figures did not help today. The Reuters/University of Michigan poll for late September yielded a figure of 73.5. That is the highest number since early in 2008. The data may mean that consumers believe the recession is over. Traders did not appear to be heartened, and a poor report on durable goods had the prevailing effect on trading all day. The Commerce Department said orders for goods expected to last at least three years fell 2.4%.
The DJIA has not moved much since mid-month and today was no exception with all three major indexes close to flat.
The market should have focused on the downward revision of Q3 GDP to 2.2%. When the benefits of "cash for clunkers" is taken out, the economy barely grew at all.
The market continues to befuddle the bears as the third quarter earnings and stock prices continued to move in a positive direction. 
Spurred on by strong earnings from JP Morgan Chase & Company and Intel, the Dow punched through 
We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.
When the market started to crap the bed last year, hundreds of public companies were faced with the prospect of delisting due to their low share prices and market caps.
The markets opened lower this morning and have continued to slide all day, mostly due to poor reports on manufacturing and unemployment. Still, for the third quarter both the DJIA and the S&P 500 indexes gained about 15%. Now, it appears that faith in an economic recovery is wobbling, primarily as a result of expected growth in unemployment and continuing low consumer spending. The federal stimulus program has pumped about $86 billion into the economy so far, but that hasn't been enough to shake loose tight-fisted lenders or cash-conserving consumers. 
Traders had on their rally caps today, and the DJIA moved as high as 9,823 as it renewed its ascent toward 10,000. The index moved back down a bit at the end of the day as traders got lazy during a session in which most of the news came before the bell.
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
