YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Early trade was lackluster as market
participants appeared reluctant to either bet on or against a stock market that
has consistently shrugged off precarious conditions in
Financials have fueled the latest leg of gains. The sector had a
quiet follow-up to the near 4% surge that it scored two days ago, but this
session it added almost 2% more. Financials are now up more than 20% year to
date. That makes them the best performing sector of 2012.
Among financial issues, banks were especially strong as buyers continued
to flock to the space following the recent release of stress test results --
the KBW Bank Index bounded to a 2.7% gain.
Tech stocks aren't far behind Financials in terms of their
year-to-date performance, but the sector, which mustered a 0.3% gain today, was
hampered by weakness in Apple (AAPL
585.56, -4.02). The biggest stock by market weight opened the day at a record
high of roughly $600 per share, but it gradually descended into negative
territory. Still, the stock is up more than 40% year to date, leaving some to
question just how long the stock can continue its climb.
Data released this morning had little influence over trade. Initial
jobless claims for the week ended March 10 totaled 351,000, which is down
14,000 week over week, but not too different than the 355,000 initial claims
that had been broadly expected.
Producer prices for February increased by 0.4% month over month,
but a 0.5% increase had been broadly anticipated. Core
producer prices increased by a more moderate 0.2% month over month, as had been
generally expected.
The Empire Manufacturing Survey improved to 20.2 in March from 19.5
in February, contrasting with the consensus call for a reading of 15.0. The
There aren't any earnings reports of consequence scheduled for this
evening or tomorrow morning, but Friday does bring monthly consumer price data
at 8:30 AM ET, monthly industrial production numbers at 9:15 AM ET, and the
preliminary reading on consumer sentiment for March from the University of
Michigan at 9:55 AM ET. Worth noting, too, is that tomorrow is a quadruple
witching options expiration day, which could add to volume and volatility.
Crude oil suffered a sell-off of about two points this morning in
response to reports regarding the release of emergency oil reserves, but most
of that was regained after the White House called those reports false. Crude
oil futures settled $0.29 lower at $105.19 per barrel.
As for natural gas prices, the energy component overcame an early
loss with help from a better-than-expected weekly inventory report that showed
a draw of 64 bcf when a draw of 60 bcf had been widely anticipated. Natural gas prices set a
session high of $2.33 per MMBtu before slowly
descending to $2.28 per MMBtu for a flat close.
Precious metals were helped by a weaker dollar today. Gold prices
closed at $1659.40 per ounce, near its session high, for a gain of $16.70 after
suffering three straight losses that accumulated to a drop of almost 70 points.
Silver followed gold's lead by booking a $0.56 gain at $32.72 per ounce.
Advancing Sectors:
Financials +1.9%, Industrials +1.2%, Materials +0.8%, Consumer Discretionary
+0.4%, Telecom +0.4%, Tech +0.3%, Consumer Staples +0.2%, Health Care +0.2%,
Energy +0.1%
Declining Sectors:
Utilities -0.1%DJ30 +58.66 NASDAQ +15.64 NQ100 +0.2% R2K +1.0% SP400 +0.9%
SP500 +8.32 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1672/1.67 bln/833 NYSE
Adv/Vol/Dec 1811/844 mln/1208