[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] While blue-chips declined, most US stocks closed marginally higher Wednesday, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the highest level since Oct 2007 as investors compared slowing retail sales with slightly upbeat earnings report. Before markets opened, data released by the Census Bureau showed US retail sales rose at a seasonally adjusted pace of 0.1 …
Market Indexes Inch Upward As Dow Hits Five-Year High; Europe Gains on Barclays
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US equities edged up Tuesday sending benchmark indexes to five-year highs, as earnings topped street estimates and investors looked ahead to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in the evening. In economic news, the US Treasury reported a budget surplus of $2.9 billion for January, beating estimates of a $2 billion deficit. Overseas, finance …
Indexes Drift Lower In Lackluster Trading; Novo Nordisk Puts A Drag On Europe
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] The major index ETFs finished marginally lower Monday on the lightest volume trading day of 2013 as investors took a breather after the recent rally and reassessed the markets that have pushed the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones near all-time highs. With no significant economic and corporate-earnings news to chew on, markets took a pause …
Equities Rally On Buyout Hopes; Europe Bounces Back On Data
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US stocks rebounded Tuesday to recoup much of the previous day’s biggest loss of the year for benchmark indexes as investors found confidence in robust corporate earnings and PC-maker Dell Inc’s decision to go private in the biggest leveraged buyout deal since the financial crisis. Shares found some support in today’s economic data. The Institute for …
Major Market Indexes Lose Face-Off with Gravity; Europe Dives
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] I did not think it was possible that the markets were actually able to lose a face-off with gravity after their relentless and almost uninterrupted ascent since mid-November. Even the by now well documented afternoon “lift-a-thon” was notably absent, as the major market indexes took their cue from Europe and produced their worst loss of this …
GDP Experiences Shrinkage; Stocks Retreat On Growth Worries; Europe Falls After US Economic Data
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US equities finished lower Wednesday, dragging the index averages off five-year highs after the Federal Reserve said economic growth had paused following the release of a government report that showed the US economy contracted in the fourth quarter. The Federal Open Market Committee kept interest rates unchanged at near zero and maintained its aggressive bond-buying program. …