Light volume and a resurgence in energy stocks was the name of the game today, with the major indices never wandering too far off base. The Dow Industrials gained 28 points (+0.3%) to 10303, the S&P 500 added 3 points (+0.3%) to 1194 and the Nasdaq was unchanged at 2057. The Dow Transports added on to their recovery with another 0.6% gain, the Dow Utilities made yet another new high with a 1.0% gain, and the bond market fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year note back up to 4.04%.
Market internals were mixed, but volume was very light with just over 1.5B shared traded on the NYSE and under 1.2B on the Nasdaq. Advances led declines by 19 to 12 on the NYSE and 10 to 9 on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was positive at 7 to 5 on the NYSE, but was just under the flat line on the Nasdaq. New highs/lows were 190/33 on the NYSE and 76/35 on the Nasdaq.
Energy stocks led the way today, with oil stocks up 2.4% followed by natural gas stocks (+2.3%), commodities (+1.2%) and utilities (+0.9). Computer hardware was the weakest group, falling 0.8%.
Seemed like traders wanted to be long crude oil futures over the weekend, as prices jumped more than $2/barrel to $58.75. The dollar had a big day, with the dollar index moving higher by 1.1% to 90.20, the first move above 90 since last August. Gold prices fell hard, down to $427/ounce.