The market started off slowly this morning, weighed down by record high oil prices as crude traded above $58/barrel, but staged a modest comeback later in the day as oil prices pulled back from those levels and news came out that a civil settlement may be possible in the AIG case.
The Dow Industrials gained 17 points (+0.2%) to 10421, the S&P 500 added 3 points (+0.3%) to 1176 and the Nasdaq moved higher by 6 points (+0.3%) to 1991. The Russell 2000 gained 2 points (+0.4%) to 614, the Dow Transports gained 0.6%, the Utilities gained 0.9% and bonds held relatively steady with the 10-year Treasury yield around 4.46%.
Market internals were mixed, with a slight positive bias, with volume strong on the NYSE but weak on the Nasdaq. Advances/declines came in at 10 to 9 on the NYSE, but 7 to 8 on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was also 10 to 9 on the NYSE and just less than 10 to 9 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 58/57 on the NYSE and 41/134 on the Nasdaq.
Not a lot of significant movement in the industry groups, with airlines (+1.9%) and retail stocks (+1.1%) moving higher, and gold & silver stocks (-1.7%), oil stocks (-1.0%) and steel stocks (-1.0%) moving lower.
Crude oil finished the day’s trading at $57.01/barrel, the US dollar gained 0.4% against other major currencies, and gold prices fell to $424/ounce.
This market remains rather unconvincing as far as its strength is concerned, but doesn’t appear all that willing to fall farther at this point either. Time will tell.