YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The stock market opened trade with a gain of
about 1%, but by session’s end it fell to a flat finish.
A decision by China's central bank to trim its benchmark interest
rate helped perpetuate a positive tone among market participants, who bid
stocks up in the prior session for the S&P 500’s best one-day bounce since
December. Sentiment was also helped by the belief that efforts will be made to
improve banking and financial conditions in
An in-line weekly initial jobless claims count of 377,000 did
little to disrupt the positive tone ahead of the open. However, there was some
disappointment associated with continuing claims, which climbed to about 3.29
million from roughly 3.26 million.
Stocks were knocked down from their early perch by a flurry of
selling that came after Fed Chairman Bernanke failed to hint at plans for
further quantitative easing in the immediate future during his speech before
Congress.
Stocks attempted to gradually reclaim gains. From time to time the
effort was interrupted by the dollar’s attempts to undo its loss. By session’s
end it was down just 0.1% against a basket of major foreign currencies. The
euro ended the day at the unchanged mark after it had moved up to a weekly high
this morning. Despite recent relief, many pundits remain concerned that the
euro will be weighed down by the persistently precarious conditions in the eurozone, most notably in
The broad market’s afternoon flush left the Nasdaq to suffer a sizable loss. It was hurt by
weakness among large-cap Tech issues. Blue chips seemed to help prop up the Dow
during the day. The broad-based S&P 500 settled at the neutral line, unable
to extend its advance to a third straight day.
Up by about 1% or more in the early going, Energy and Financials
had been sources of strength, but both rolled over right alongside the rest of
the market. Telecom stocks were clipped again, leaving the defensive-oriented
sector to suffer a 0.7% loss.
Corporate news flow was limited, but consumer electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY 19.70, -0.19) announced
this morning that Chairman and Founder Richard Schulze has resigned from the
Board to explore options for his 20% stake in the company. Effective
immediately, Hatim Tyabji
will assume the Chairman role after serving as Chairman of the Audit Committee.
Natural gas prices were pressured throughout pit trade. They
slumped in response to a slightly larger-than-expected build of 62 bcf then extended their slide to settle with a 6.2% loss at
$2.27 per MMBtu, just above its session low of $2.26
per MMBtu. Crude oil was helped in electronic trade
by
Gold fell off its floor session high of $1628.30 per ounce all the
way to a session low of $1579.40 per ounce before settling with a 2.9% loss at
$1587.80 per ounce. Silver gave up its gain after setting a session high of
$29.64 per ounce and slid as low as $28.36 per ounce. It was unsuccessful at
erasing losses and settled floor trade at $28.50 per ounce, or 3.6% lower.
Advancing Sectors:
Materials +0.2%, Consumer Staples +0.2%, Energy +0.2%, Industrials +0.6%,
Utilities +0.7%
Unchanged: Health Care
Declining Sectors:
Consumer Discretionary -0.1%, Financials -0.2%, Tech -0.4%, Telecom -0.7%DJ30
+46.17 NASDAQ -13.70 NQ100 -0.4% R2K -0.6% SP400 -0.5% SP500 -0.14 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1017/1.63 bln/1481 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec
1389/854 mln/1635