The market reacted somewhat favorably to Greenspan’s remarks today, and moved the major indices slightly higher on light-to-average volume. The Dow Industrials gained 26 points (+0.3%) to 10503, the S&P 500 added 6 points (+0.5%) to 1201 and the Nasdaq bounced 17 points (+0.8%) to 2077. The Russell 2000 added 6 points (+0.9%) to 626. The Dow Transports failed to join in the fun, falling 0.2%, the Dow Utilities gained 0.2% and bonds fell slightly pushing the 10-year Treasury yield back up to 3.95%.
Market internals were positive, with advances leading declines 9 to 7 on the NYSE and 3 to 2 on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was even better, at nearly 2 to 1 on the NYSE and better than 3 to 1 on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 115/22 on the NYSE and 69/49 on the Nasdaq.
Energy stocks led the way higher on a jump in crude prices, led by oil services (+3.4%) and oil stocks (+2.7%). Following them up were networking stocks (+2.0%), semiconductors (+1.9%), natural gas stocks (+1.9%), HMOs (+1.7%) and biotechs (+1.3%). Losing on the day were paper stocks (-1.5%), steel stocks (-1.2%), and airlines (-1.0%).
Crude oil prices moved higher on news of a tropical storm poised to move into the Gulf of Mexico, rising $1.74 to $54.28/barrel. The dollar index gained 0.2% to 88.07, and gold prices were near $423/ounce.