The market staged a rather nice recovery today, spending most of the day in negative territory, but bouncing back late in the day to finish will all three major indices just above the flat line on a pickup in volume. The Dow Industrials finished up 19 points (+0.2%) at 10566, the S&P 500 added 3 points (+0.2%) to 1207, and the Nasdaq gained 6 points (+0.3%) to 2075. The Russell 2000 moved 3 points higher (+0.4%) to 637, the Dow Transports finally had an up day gaining 0.5%, the Dow Utilities fell 0.4% and bonds bounced around but didn’t go too far, finishing with the 10-year yield at 4.11%.
Market internals were positive across the board, with advances/declines 11/8 on the NYSE and 16/13 on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was even better, at 5/3 on both exchanges. New highs/lows were 241/28 on the NYSE and 119/37 on the Nasdaq.
Metals stocks had big day, with steel stocks getting up off the floor with a 3.8% gain. Also on the plus side were gold & silver stocks (+1.6%), housing stocks (+1.4%), commodities (+1.4%), oil services (+1.4%) and computer hardware (+1.3%). Losing ground were the airlines (-1.1%).
Crude oil spiked well above $56 in the morning, following the weekly inventory data release, but settled back down as the day wore on, finishing higher by a half dollar at $55.57/barrel. The US dollar took a beating after its run higher, with the dollar index falling back 0.7% to 88.70. Gold crept up to $428/ounce.
The market saved itself late in the day today, when it looked like there was potential for a big slide. The Nasdaq 100 stuck its foot through the bottom of its recent trading range, but pulled it back to finish back in the range and even with a gain on the day. Nice save.