Dow ends above 15,000 for first time, S&P closes at record

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow closed above 15,000 for the first time on Tuesday and the S&P 500 ended at another record high, extending the market's rally as more investors rushed to join the party and German industrial data beat expectations.

It was the fourth straight record close for the S&P 500. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 hit intraday record highs as well.

"People are concerned they're missing the boat if they're not fully invested in the stock market right now," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer of North Star Investment Management Corp., in Chicago.

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Stocks Finish Higher; Dow Nears 14,000

Stocks closed higher on Tuesday as the Dow marched toward the 14,000 level and investors looked ahead to Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy announcement.
A gain in the energy sector following strong earnings from refiner Valero and big gains in the pharma sector after Pfizer's solid earnings report supported stocks.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.49 points, or 0.52 percent, to close at 13,954.42, lifted by big gains in Pfizer and Verizon. Hewlett-Packard lagged. The Dow has not closed above 14,000 since October 17, 2007.

The S&P 500 gained 7.66 points, or 0.51 percent, to finish at 1,507.84, while the Nasdaq shed 0.64 points, or 0.02 percent, to close at 3,153.66 as disappointing earnings weighed on tech stocks.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 13.
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‘Era of Uncertainty’ May Be Drawing to a Close

If economists, business executives and investors have been sure of one thing this year, it is that uncertainty — over economic policies, political leadership and central-bank actions — is largely to blame for the shambling global economic pace, spotty job growth and serial bouts of anxiety in financial markets.

 

But the bull market in "uncertainty" has likely peaked -- not that many have noticed amid the political noise and unsettled stock market, which is falling sharply Tuesday amid disappointing earnings and worries over Spain.

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Stocks Will Rise in Q4 if History Is Any Guide

The Fed steps in, and stocks soar: Dow climbs 206

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market staged a huge rally Thursday after investors got the aggressive economic help they wanted from the Federal Reserve.

 

The Dow Jones industrial average spiked more than 200 points and cleared 13,500 for the first time since the beginning of the Great Recession. The average is within 625 points of its all-time high.

The Fed said it would buy $40 billion of mortgage securities a month until the economy improves. It left open the possibilities of buying other assets and of buying long after the recovery picks up.
The central bank also extended its pledge of super-low short-term interest rates into 2015, and extended a program to drive down long-term rates.

It was the package known as QE3 — a third round of quantitative easing, in market-speak. And it was just what investors were hoping for.

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Dow Versus KLCI

Market Close Stocks End at Multi-Year Highs, Fueled by ECB

Stocks surged across the board to close at multi-year highs Thursday, propelled by a batch of upbeat economic reports and after ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank agreed on a new bond-buying program.
 
The Dow logged its best close since December 2007, while the S&P 500 posted its best finish since January 2008.

The volatility index plunged more than 10 percent to close below 16.

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KLCI Sharply lower on panic selling

BURSA Malaysia closed sharply lower on pa-nic selling after Standard and Poor's said it may cut Malaysia's sovereign credit rating if the government did not deliver promised reforms to cut spending to reduce its fiscal deficits.


The FTSE Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (FBM KLCI) lost 23.02 points to close at 1,617.99. It hovered between 1,613.16 and 1,635.95 throughout the day.


The downtrend was dragged by losses in heavyweights Axiata and CIMB which fell 20 sen each to RM6.02 and RM7.54 respectively.

Read more... Sharply lower on panic selling

Wall Street Week Ahead: S&P to fly after wild ride to Wyoming

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The streak is over, but is the trend intact?

A six-week string of gains in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) ended on Friday amid shifting expectations for central bank stimulus. This week could bring clarity on that issue, and that could determine whether the recent rally that took the index to four-year highs will persist.

"The streak is broken, but the trend isn't, and I think the next major move on the S&P will push us up towards 1,450 or 1,500," said Mark Arbeter, chief technical strategist for Standard & Poor's in New York. "Small- and mid-cap stocks are near their all-time highs, and if they break those highs, I think that will prompt the market to really rip higher."

Still, the market could be in for a bumpy ride this week ahead of Friday's meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Investors are looking for clues on whether Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce a third round of quantitative easing.

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What ... Me Worry About Dow 13,000? Seems Many Do

What's not to like about Dow 13,000? While some investors cheered when the blue-chip index closed above that level Tuesday for the first time since May 2008, some were wringing their hands.

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Dow Closes Above 13,000 for First Time Since Financial Crisis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008 on Tuesday and the S&P 500 also hit a milestone, as buoyant U.S. consumer confidence data and a sharp drop in oil prices nudged the nearly five-month rally forward.

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The Dow is Going To 20,000 by the end of 2012

Wall Street Ends the Week Up; Dow Close to 13,000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks edged higher on Friday, but investors stayed cautious before a long holiday weekend when hopes are set for Greece's bailout plan to be approved.

The S&P ended its sixth positive week out of seven so far in 2012, lifting it near levels not seen in more than three years. The index has risen 8.2 percent so far this year.

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Wall St jumps, on track for weekly gain as fears ebb

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday and were on track to end the week higher as Italy's Senate approved economic reforms, easing investors' concerns about the euro zone's debt crisis.

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Stocks Sink to End Month, but Major Indices Still See Big Gains for October

Consumers less negative than data says: U.S. Commerce official

Charts are Bullish

Dow closed at 11 397 down 247, but indicators point to an uptrend - Let's see! Dow R~11 640 KLCI R~1480

The Following Day

21 October 2011

 

Wall St. gains on euro-fund optimism, Dow up on year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped 1 percent on Wednesday, pushing the Dow into positive territory for the year, as the euro-zone rescue fund was set to get approval from all EU members.

Momentum buying was partly in play, analysts said. The S&P 500 has gained 13.5 percent from the intraday low hit last week on Tuesday and was on track for its largest seven-day rally since March 2009.

"It feels as though the market is experiencing the possibility of a melt-up," said Hank Smith, chief investment officer of Haverford Trust Co. in Philadelphia.

"You've got a lot of money on the sidelines that just didn't want to take the risk of being invested. That could come back in."

Slovakian lawmakers struck a deal to ratify more powers for the euro zone's rescue fund, known as the EFSF, effectively ending a crisis that threatens the euro's survival and which has weighed on stocks and other risky assets for months.

Slovakia is the last country in the 17-member currency zone left to approve the revamped EFSF.

Bank shares led the advance again, with the KBW Bank Index (Philadelphia:^BKX) shot up 4.1 percent. Citigroup (NYSE:C) gained 6.2 percent to $29.54.

The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI:^DJI) was up 159.92 points, or 1.40 percent, at 11,576.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (SNP:^GSPC) was up 18.51 points, or 1.55 percent, at 1,214.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq:^IXIC) was up 31.46 points, or 1.22 percent, at 2,614.49.

The S&P 500 traded above 1,200 for the first time in three weeks, taking the benchmark near the upper end of a range it has been stuck at since early August.

If the index is able to stay above resistance at 1,215, that would be seen as a bullish signal, analysts said.

Among earnings, PepsiCo Inc (NYSE:PEP) rose 3.7 percent to $63.19 after it reported slightly better-than-expected earnings and affirmed its full-year target. But Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) fell 2.5 percent to $10.04 and ranked as one of the biggest drags on the Dow, a day after reporting results.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Note: Downward trend channel broken upwards!!

Stocks End Near Session Highs, Dow Soars 300

Stocks surged in the final minutes of trading to close at session highs Monday, led by banks, amid optimism that France and Germany's pledge would help resolve the euro zone debt crisis and rescue the region's struggling financials.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average logged its best five-day point gain since Dec. 2008, led by BofA [BAC 6.28 0.38 (+6.44%) ] and JPMorgan [JPM 32.30 1.60 (+5.21%) ]. The Dow has rallied over 1,000 points from last Tuesday's intraday low of 10404.49.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also ended sharply higher. Both major indexes are on pace for their best month this year. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded below 34.

All 10 S&P sectors finished firmly in the black, led by banks and energy.

Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to present a plan before a G20 summit early next month to shore up euro zone banks, settle the Greek debt crisis and help growth in Europe.

“The optimism is amazing to me—I don’t think any market participant is saying things are fixed in Europe, but what they’re hoping is that by the time Europe starts to resurface again in a few months from now, there will be traction in our economy that will be enough of a positive to wipe out the negative there,” Jim Iuorio of TJM Institutional Services told CNBC.

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Week Ahead: U.S. corporate earnings to be weak, says analyst

Weekly Recap - Week ending 07-Oct-11

Failure to sustain a rebound from midday losses left stocks to roll into the red during the final hour. They still made it out with week 2% higher than where they started.

The major equity averages lacked direction this morning, even though premarket participants had cheered the September jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 103,000, up from an upwardly revised 57,000 in August. However, the upside surprise is mostly due to the end of a strike at Verizon. Excluding those workers, payrolls increased by 58,000, which is on par with the 60,000 new jobs that had been generally expected among economists polled by Briefing.com. Meanwhile, private payrolls increased by 137,000, which came on top of the upwardly revised 42,000 jobs that were added during the prior month. An increase of 83,000 had been broadly expected.

The number of people entering the workforce was roughly the same as the number of workers who found jobs in September, so the unemployment rate remained at 9.1%, which is exactly what had been expected. However, job gains were mostly part-time, resulting in an increase in underemployment that took the "real" unemployment rate up to 16.5% from 16.2% in the prior month.

Even though the payrolls report proved better-than-expected, stocks lacked leadership at the open of trade. That made it difficult for the major equity averages to extend their streak of gains to a fourth straight session. The listlessness of early trade left stocks to slide into negative territory. Selling intensified in response to news that analysts at Fitch cut their ratings on Italy and Spain. At its low, the stock market was down more than 1%.

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