YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: The major equity averages rebounded from a
sharp loss in the prior session to book strong gains. Underlying share volume
was on par with recent trends.
Following the worst one-day drop for the S&P 500 in nearly
three months market participants came back with a strong bid. Financials became
the favorite sector, but had actually seemed a bit groggy in the early going as
the sector tried to work through a hangover from the 2.5% drop that it suffered
in the prior session. Financials settled trade today with a 1.3% gain.
The Consumer Discretionary sector scored a 1.0% gain as shares of
retailers continued their climb. Even American
Eagle (AEO 15.54, +0.91) rallied hard
despite a disappointing quarterly report and forecast.
Industrials also advanced 1.0%. The group was led by General Electric (GE 18.77, +0.35),
which benefited from word ahead of its Investor Day that expectations are still
in place for double-digit revenue growth in the company's global growth
regions.
Apple (AAPL
530.69, +0.43) shares set session highs in the opening minutes of trade, but
responded negatively to the company's unveiling of its latest iPad. The stock was able to recover from the red and eke
out an incremental gain, though.
Utilities fell early, but finished at the flat line. They were the
only sector that failed to book a gain.
The dollar benefited from a flight to safety in the prior session,
but it experienced some modest selling today. That left it to lose about 0.2%
against a collection of competing currencies. The Volatility Index was down
about 8% by session's end. Its drop came a day after it had spiked to trade
near its one-month high.
Data today didn't do a whole lot to induce trade. Still, market
participants took note that the latest ADP Employment Change reading indicated
that private payrolls climbed in February by 216,000, which is on par with the
increase of 218,000 that had been expected, on average, among economists polled
by Briefing.com. The February figure also came as an improvement over the
upwardly revised increase of 173,000 private payrolls reported for January.
Fourth quarter productivity and labor cost data both experienced
some substantial revisions from the preliminary readings. The latest report
indicated that productivity increased by 0.9%, which is an improvement over the
0.7% increase reported previously. Many had expected the revised reading to
show an increase of 0.8%. Unit labor costs climbed 2.8%, which is far greater
than the 1.2% increase featured in the preliminary reading and sharper than the
1.1% increase that had been widely anticipated.
Consumer credit climbed to $17.8 billion in February from a
downwardly revised $16.3 billion in the prior month. Economists polled by
Briefing.com had forecasted, on average, a decline to $12.0 billion.
Barely 800 million shares traded hands today on the NYSE. Although
that's not very impressive by historical averages, it is in stride with recent
trends.
Tomorrow's calendar of events is weighted toward the early morning.
The Bank of
Oil prices were pressured at the open of pit trade, but the energy
component closed pit trade with an impressive gain of 1.4% at $106.15 per barrel.
The bullish bias was helped by news that weekly crude oil inventories increased
by about 832,000, which is less than the build of 1.5 million barrels that had
been broadly expected.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, natural gas prices tumbled 2.1% to
$2.30 per MMBtu, which stands as a multi-year low for
constant natural gas futures prices and a lifetime low for the April contract.
Precious metals made a partial recovery from their prior session
slide. Following a 1.9% loss yesterday, gold prices gained 0.7% to close pit
trade today at $1683.70 per ounce. Meanwhile, silver sank 2.8% yesterday, but
bounced 2.1% to $33.49 per ounce today.
Even though precious metals and oil prices traded higher, the CRB
Index still suffered a 0.2% loss, which comes on top of the 1.6% drop that it
suffered in the prior session. That drop marked CRB's
worst single-session loss in two months.
Advancing Sectors:
Financials +1.3%, Industrials +1.0%, Consumer Discretionary +1.0%, Tech +0.7%,
Energy +0.6%, Telecom +0.5%, Health Care +0.4%, Materials +0.4%, Consumer
Staples +0.1%
Unchanged: Utilities
Declining Sectors:
(None)DJ30 +78.18 NASDAQ +25.37 NQ100 +0.7% R2K +1.1% SP400 +1.0% SP500 +9.27
NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1859/1.57 bln/643 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2375/801 mln/645