The market seemed to get a little carried away with itself today, following up on yesterday’s post-terrorist-attack recovery with a healthy rally. The Dow Industrials gained 147 points (+1.4%) to 10449, the S&P 500 moved up 14 points (+1.2%) to 1212, and the Nasdaq got the most out of the day, adding 37 points (+1.8%) to finish at 2113 - finally posting a close above that 2100 level, and its highest closing mark since Jan. 3rd. The Russell 2000 moved to historic highs, gaining 13 points (+2.0%) to 662. Also hitting new highs yet again were the S&P Small-Cap 600 and Mid-Cap 400 indices. The Dow Transports continued their rebound, gaining another 2.0%, the Dow Utilities were up 1.0%, and the bond market finished with the 10-year note at 4.09%.
Market internals were all positive, although volume was probably a little lighter than the bulls would have liked to see. Advances outpaced declines by 3 to 1 on the NYSE and 11 to 4 on the Nasdaq. Up/down volume was nearly 4 to 1 on the NYSE, and a huge 6 to 1 on the Nasdaq. New highs outnumbered new lows by 402/17 on the NYSE and 179/19 on the Nasdaq.
Gains were seen pretty much across the board, with the biggest coming in airlines (+3.9%), biotechs (+3.0%), networking (+2.7%), computer hardware (+2.6%), semiconductors (+2.5%), chemicals (+2.1%), steel stocks (+2.0%), computer technology (+1.7%), transportation (+1.7%), REITs (+1.6%), broker/dealers (+1.5%), and internets (+1.5%). Some energy stocks slipped a bit, with oil services down 0.8%.
Helping the markets a tad was a drop in crude oil prices of more than a dollar to $59.30/barrel, and oil traders await the arrival of Hurricane Dennis in the Gulf. The dollar index fell slightly to 90.25 and the price of gold held near $423/ounce.