YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: A late surge of buying interest was
accompanied by a spike in trading volume, which helped all three major indices
finish at their session highs.
The buying effort was largely focused on financial stocks. The
sector reversed early weakness to trade with gains for the entire afternoon,
but it wasn't until a surge in the final hour that financials were able to
climb to their session high. Financials finished with a gain of 5.6% for the
session.
JPMorgan Chase (JPM
32.56, +1.86) was a primary leader in the move by financials. Interest in
shares of JPM comes ahead of the company's first quarter earnings announcement,
which takes place tomorrow morning.
The move by financials helped spur buying in the broader market so
that nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 closed in the green.
Technology was the only sector to finish with a loss. It closed
0.7% lower amid weakness in shares of large-cap tech stocks like Intel (INTC 15.62, -0.39). Intel
actually announced last evening better-than-expected first quarter earnings
results and indicated during its conference call that a bottom has been reached
in the personal computer market. Intel went on to say that the worst is behind
them from an inventory and demand perspective.
Traders' decision to sell such good news comes in contrast to the
trends seen in recent weeks. Nonetheless, Intel's weakness bled into other
semiconductor and large-cap tech stocks. As such, the
While most large-cap tech stocks lagged, Google (GOOG 379.50, +10.59) traded
with strength ahead of its earnings announcement tomorrow evening. Google's
strength helped lift the Nasdaq Composite out of negative territory in the
final few minutes of trade, but Google's strength didn't prevent the Nasdaq
from lagging its counterparts for the entire session.
Economic data did little to move investors this session. March
industrial production fell a more-than-expected 1.5%, while capacity utilization
came in at 69.3%.
Consumer prices for March slipped 0.1%, but core prices increased
0.2%. Economists expected a respective increase of 0.1% and an increase of
0.1%.
The Fed released its Beige Book, which didn't contain any real
surprises. Though five of 12 districts reported contraction slowed last month,
the bigger message is that activity still contracted. Essentially, the report
fit Fed Chairman Bernanke's recent pronouncement that there are tentative signs
the decline in economic activity may be slowing.DJ30 +109.44 NASDAQ +1.08 NQ100
-0.4% R2K +1.8% SP400 +1.4% SP500 +10.56 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1702/2.06 bln/998
NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2162/1.48 bln/872