YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A modest advance by stocks put the S&P
500 at its best level in about 10 months, the Dow at its highest level in
nearly four years, and the Nasdaq
at its highest point in more than a decade, but gains were checked by some
afternoon selling.
Consistent with recent sessions, early trade was relatively choppy
as many market participants showed skepticism about the stock market's ability
to keep climbing without consolidative activity following its climb in recent
weeks -- the S&P 500 scored a 0.3% gain this week, booking its seventh
weekly advance in eight.
Early headlines had little, if any, influence over the direction of
broad market trade. As such, better-than-expected earnings from AIG (AIG 28.41, +0.42), Gap (GPS 22.57, -0.95), and JC Penney (JCP 41.72, -0.21) saw mixed reactions.
In a similar vein, there was hardly a reaction to economic data
that featured an improvement in the Consumer Sentiment Survey for February from
the
Despite listlessness in the early going, stocks eventually worked
their way higher. The move initially encountered resistance, but stocks were
able to overcome it in a second attempt. That allowed the broad market to add
incrementally to its multi-month intraday high. Although tech stocks traded
with relative strength and settled with a 0.6% gain, the sector never really
displayed the leadership necessary to drive a broad market rally.
Strength in the tech sector was partly offset by weakness in the
highly influential Financial sector, which lagged for
virtually the entire session and settled with a 0.4% loss.
As stocks appeared unable to extend their climb some participants
opted to take some profits, dropping the S&P 500 to the flat line before it
could find support.
Share volume this session was paltry, reflecting apathy among
investors. The final tally on the NYSE was barely 640 million shares. Although
volume trends have been low for several months, some question whether or not
stocks can continue to climb if there isn't conviction among market
participants.
Oil prices extended their climb again -- the energy component
closed at a new multi-month high of $109.76 per barrel for a 1.7% gain. That
move helped drive the CRB Index to a 0.8% gain for the day and 2.7% gain for
the week. That stands as the CRB's best one-week
performance of the past two months.
In the backdrop, the dollar dropped to a new two-month low against
a basket of major foreign currencies. It was especially weak against the euro,
which was quoted at $1.345 for a gain of about 0.6% by session's end.
Leading up to trade on Friday, stocks put together solid gains on
Thursday. The effort came in the face of news that the European Union expects eurozone GDP for 2012 to decline by 0.3% instead of expand
by 0.5%, as had been previously projected.
Economic data was limited to news that initial weekly jobless
claims remain near four-year lows. The latest tally totaled 351,000, which is
unchanged week over week, and generally on par with the 355,000 initial claims
that had been broadly expected.
There was only a morsel of domestic data released on Wednesday. It
showed that existing home sales for January hit an annualized rate of 4.57
million units, which is shy of the rate of 4.63 million units that had been
broadly expected. A significant downward revision to prior month sales also
hurt the housing picture.
The CRB Index scored a 0.8% gain today. That helped fuel a weekly
gain of 2.7%, which stands as the CRB's best one-week
move in two months.
Oil has been a primary driver of the CRB's
ascent. The energy component extended its climb into today's trade by closing
at a new multi-month high of $109.76 per barrel for a 1.7% gain.
In contrast, natural gas extended its decline. The energy component
closed with a 2.5% loss at $2.69 per MMBtu.
Precious metals also closed with losses. Specifically, gold prices
fell 0.6% to $1776.30 per ounce, while silver settled at $35.28 per ounce for a
0.7% loss.
Since