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Well, lucky that the standard Rant intraday target (100 Dow points or its index equivalent) was achieved yesterday. I mentioned in today's OzRant that the markets are coiling for a rebound. Today's US session was NOT - repeat, NOT - the start of that rebound. Anyone who goes long on the back of today's US session is going to wind up wearing their colon around their neck.
A big shout out to the Echos who have started to stand up regarding waterboarding (and about torture in general).
Sure, they're only enlisted men, but 97E is a grade where you're the guy getting your hands wet (if you accept the assignment) and to hear some Echos sounding off is very heartening.
Economic News
Aaaah, Economics... it's a primary love of mine (along with small arms, light infantry tactics, and missiles), but frankly the less you know about it the better (from a trading perspective). For a start the statistics now being produced by the US government would make Orwell explode, and H.L. Mencken (never shy in saying "I told ya so") would be saying "I told ya so". So let's get this over with fast.
Today's stats:
- Retail Sales rose 0.3%, confounding the consensus guess which looked for a decline. Once motor vehicles were removed, the number was magically the same. but the main increase was in fuel and energy expenditures... if there was a "Core" retail sales number (excluding food and energy) it would have fallen.
- Business inventories rose 0.6%, slightly lower than the expert guess. Big deal. Means nothing.
- Crude Oil inventories rose 1.07 million barrels.
Fed Open Market Operations
The Fed did one repurchase operation - a $9.75 billion 1-day repo, of which $5.384 billion was in Treasury-backed collateral; the repurchase was at a 12.3 basis point discount to Fed Funds... that's a fair discount, and a relatively large slab of repo dough, too.
Headline Indices
The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced +178.83 points (1.45%) to 12552.24 points. No real catalyst - just a little flowover from the recent soothing noises being made by that woeful failure bush and his coterie of depressingly stereotypical cronies.
The index high for the day was 12573.13, set just before the close. The low was 12367.80, set just after 10:30 a.m. NY time..
Major Advancers in the Dow were
- Alcoa (AA) +2.02 (6.03%) to 35.51 on volume of 19.9 million units
- American Express (AXP) +1.77 (3.93%) to 46.85 on volume of 9.1 million units
- AT&T (T) +1.16 (3.09%) to 38.67 on volume of 30.2 million units
- Verizon (VZ) +1.10 (2.93%) to 38.66 on volume of 21.2 million units
- 3M (MMM) +2.28 (2.88%) to 81.38 on volume of 3.1 million units
Major Decliners in the Dow were
- Amer Intl Group (AIG) -0.62 (1.34%) to 45.52 on volume of 29.4 million units
- Coca Cola (KO) -0.53 (0.88%) to 59.39 on volume of 12.6 million units
- Procter Gamble (PG) -0.16 (0.24%) to 67 on volume of 9.3 million units
- Home Depot (HD) -0.04 (0.14%) to 28.34 on volume of 9.4 million units
- Du Pont (DD) -0.05 (0.11%) to 46.66 on volume of 5 million units
Most Traded Dow stocks were
- Citigroup (C) + 0.13 (0.5%) to 26.34 on volume of 89.4 million units
- Microsoft (MSFT) + 0.62 (2.19%) to 28.96 on volume of 87 million units
- Intel (INTC) + 0.31 (1.48%) to 21.21 on volume of 48.3 million units
- Pfizer (PFE) + 0.06 (0.26%) to 22.74 on volume of 35.1 million units
- General Electric (GE) + 0.61 (1.77%) to 34.98 on volume of 32.1 million units
The S&P500 Index advanced 18.35 points (1.36%) to 1367.21 points. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 53.89 points (2.32%) to 2373.93 points, and the Nasdaq100 launched to the tune of 42.46 points (2.38%) to 1823.00 points.
The CBOE Volatiity Index lost 1.55 points (5.89%) to 24.78 points and the CBOE Nasdaq100 Volatilty Index lost 3.01 points (10.67%) to 25.21 points. The index high for the day was 27.30, while the low was 24.88.
NYSE Total Volume totalled 3.69billion units; Nasdaq Total Volume totalled 2.17billion units.
| Major Market Statistics | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Dow Jones Industrial Average | 12552.24 | +178.83 | 1.45% |
| S&P500 Index | 1367.21 | +18.35 | 1.36% |
| Nasdaq Composite | 2373.93 | +53.89 | 2.32% |
| Nasdaq100 | 1823.00 | +42.46 | 2.38% |
| CBOE Volatiity Index | 24.78 | -1.55 | -5.89% |
| CBOE Nasdaq100 Volatilty Index | 25.21 | -3.01 | -10.67% |
| NYSE Total Volume | 3.69bn | - | - |
| Nasdaq Total Volume | 2.17bn | - | - |
Precious Metals
Precious metals futures were mixed: the nuffnuffs keep gtting their heads slapped whenever Gold climbs above $925 an ounce, and the small long side of the platinum market is ripe for gutting.
| Precious Metal Futures | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Gold | 908.3 | -2.8 | -0.31 |
| Silver | 1729.5 | +4.5 | 0.26 |
| Platinum | 1980.0 | +58.2 | 3.03 |
| Palladium | 436.90 | +5.40 | 1.25 |
Energy Complex
Energy futures have sort of lost interest - I notice that small long interest is waning a little, which should set the stage for another move up pretty soon. -
| Energy Futures | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| Crude Oil | 93.25 | +0.47 | 0.51 |
| Heating Oil | 2.6170 | +0.0259 | 1 |
| Gasoline RBOB | 2.3900 | +0.0220 | 0.93 |
| Natural Gas | 8.389 | -0.047 | -0.56 |
| Ethanol | 2.100 | unch | 0 |
Bellwethers
The nine-stock group that makes up the Rant bellwethers advanced on average by 1.7%. The fallout occurred as follows:
- General Electric (GE) up $+0.61 (1.77%) to $34.98 on volume of 32.12 million units.
- Citigroup (C) up $+0.13 (0.5%) to $26.34 on volume of 89.4 million units.
- Wal-Mart (WMT) up $+0.41 (0.82%) to $50.66 on volume of 15.21 million units.
- IBM (IBM) up $+1.89 (1.77%) to $108.42 on volume of 5.07 million units.
- Intel (INTC) up $+0.31 (1.48%) to $21.21 on volume of 48.29 million units.
- Cisco Systems (CSCO) up $+0.63 (2.69%) to $24.06 on volume of 63.65 million units.
- Google (GOOG) up $+16.53 (3.19%) to $534.62 on volume of 6.33 million units.
- Fannie Mae (FNM) up $+1.02 (3.35%) to $31.47 on volume of 9.97 million units.
- Freddie Mac (FRE) down $0 (0%) to $29.15 on volume of 8.83 million units.
| Currency Futures | |||
| Index | Close | Gain(Loss) | % |
| U.S. Dollar Index | 76.530 | +0.080 | 0.1 |
| British Pound | 1.9609 | +0.0029 | 0.15 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1.0017 | +0.0034 | 0.34 |
| Japanese Yen | 0.9264 | -0.0074 | -0.79 |
| Swiss Franc | 0.9030 | -0.0048 | -0.53 |
| Euro FX | 1.4564 | -0.0015 | -0.1 |
| Australian Dollar | 0.8920 | -0.0086 | -0.95 |
| New Zealand Dollar | 0.77940 | -0.0083 | -1.05 |
