Led by the energy stocks, the market staged a bit of a rally today, despite facing the prospect of $60 oil again. To the bulls’ disappointment however, volume was a little on the light side…
The Dow Industrials moved higher by 68 points (+0.7%) to 10372, the S&P500 gained 11 points (+0.9%) to 1205 and the Nasdaq added 21 points (+1.0%) to 2079. The Russell 2000 gained 10 points (+1.6%) to 653, the Dow Transports added back another 0.8%, the Dow Utilities were unchanged and bonds slipped for another day, pushing the 10-year Treasury yield up to 4.11%.
Small and mid-cap stocks continue to do well in this market, with both the S&P Small-Cap 600 and Mid-Cap 400 indices hitting new highs today.
With the exception of the light volume, market internals were pretty healthy, with advances leading declines by nearly 2 to 1 on both exchanges. Up/down volume was 7 to 3 on both, and new highs/lows came in at 346/35 on the NYSE and 157/42 on the Nasdaq.
Energy stocks were the big winners, with oil services up 3.4%, followed by natural gas stocks (+2.4%), oil stocks (+2.3%), disk drives (+2.1%), retailers (+2.0%), paper stocks (+1.7%), semiconductors (+1.6%), biotechs (+1.5%), HMOs (+1.4%), REITs (+1.2%), and steel stocks (+1.1%). Gold & silver stocks took a dive today, slipping 2.6%, and airlines fell 1.0%.
Crude oil moved up by nearly a dollar to $59.59/barrel. The dollar index was unchanged at 90.39, and the price of gold fell below $424/ounce.