YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Choppy, listless trade today kept the stock
market near the neutral line, but a late flurry of selling resulted in a modest
loss.
Amid a dearth of headlines and directional cues this morning stocks
started the session essentially unchanged. Financials had offered some support,
but the sector soon faltered. Although it failed to recover, the Financial sector was able to limit downward movement. It
settled with a 0.4% loss.
Energy stocks had a more adverse influence over broad market trade,
though. Since the open Energy had to wrestle with stiff selling, making it the
worst performing sector for virtually the entire session. As a group Energy
stocks shed 1.0%, but oil and gas equipment and services plays encountered the
most pronounced pressure. Their weakness came despite a marked push by oil
prices up above $107 per barrel.
Earnings were limited to only a handful of companies. Oracle (ORCL 29.41, -0.69) was among
them. Shares initially benefited from a positive response to
better-than-expected bottom line results, but enthusiasm died and the stock
descended steadily into the close, settling with a sizable loss only narrowly
above session lows. The rest of the Tech sector, which finished with a 0.1%
loss, saw gains evaporate in response to selling in the final stretch of trade.
Volatility was down sharply amid the stock market's lackluster
action, but some late selling pressure caused the Volatility Index to move back
above 15. By the closing bell it was still down more than 3% for the day,
though.
The dollar didn't do much today. It made a couple of modest moves
up from the flat line, but by session's end it led a basket of competing
currencies by less than 0.1%.
While oil had a strong session, most other commodities staged
varied gains after suffering from aggressive selling pressure in the prior
session. Still, the CRB Index only eked out a gain of 0.1%.
Treasuries attracted buyers after the yield on the 10-year Note
traded near a multi-month high near 2.40% yesterday. The advance today took the
yield on the benchmark Note back down to about 2.30%.
Economic data was limited in scope. It featured monthly existing
home sales numbers, which showed that unit sales hit an annualized pace of 4.59
million units in February. That's on the order of the 4.60 million units that
had been broadly expected. As an aside, the prior month's pace was revised
upward to 4.63 million. Comments from Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury
Secretary Geithner in a testimony on
Crude oil prices closed at $107.22 per barrel for a gain of $1.12.
Its high was set at $107.70 per barrel shortly before floor trade ended. Prices
initially had only a moderately positive response to bullish inventory data.
Natural gas prices overcame early weakness to settle a penny shy of
its session high at $2.36 per MMBtu for a gain of
$0.02.
Gold gained $3.10 to settle pit trade at $1650.40 per ounce, but
silver scored a $0.34 gain to settle at $32.23 per ounce. Both spent the entire
session in positive territory.
Advancing Sectors:
Telecom +0.3%, Consumer Staples +0.1%, Consumer Discretionary +0.1%
Unchanged: Industrials,
Materials
Declining Sectors: Tech
-0.1%, Health Care -0.1%, Utilities -0.2%, Financials -0.4%, Energy -1.0%DJ30
-45.57 NASDAQ +1.17 NQ100 +0.0% R2K +0.1% SP400 -0.1% SP500 -2.63 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1275/1.53 bln/1216 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec
1469/726 mln/1498