The market fought off record oil prices and higher bond yields today, but the major indices pulled back from their highs to finished mixed. The Dow Industrials index lagged yet again, dropping 18 points (-0.2%) to 10623. The S&P 500 was up 1 point (+0.1%) to 1235. The Nasdaq had the best day of the three majors, punching through the 22o0 mark but unable to saty there, finishing with a gain of 11 points (+0.5%) to 2195. The Russell 2000 was just shy of another high at 683, up 3 points (+0.5%). The Dow Transports were up 0.2% while the Utilities fell 1.2% on the higher interest rates. Bonds were lower sending those rates higher, pushing the 5-year up to 4.16% and the 10-year to 4.32%.
Market internals were good, but volume was a little on the light side. Advances/declines were 5 to 4 on both exchanges, and up/down volume was just better than 3 to 2 on each. New highs/lows were 309/15 on the NYSE and 243/17 on the Nasdaq.
Looking at the various groups, we see winners in HMOs (+1.8%), oil services (+1.3%), biotechs (+1.2%), oil stocks (+1.1) and natural resources (+1.0%). Losing ground were the utilities (-1.3%).
Crude oil pushed to a new intra-day high above $62 before pulling back, finishing up a buck at $61.57/barrel. The dollar got smacked around pretty good by other major currencies, sending the dollar index down 0.6% to 88.87. It remains to be seen whether this latest weakness in the dollar is merely a pullback in the dollar rally that began last December, or if this last 8 months has really been a counter-trend move in the longer dollar downtrend. The fall in the greenback has been pushing up the price of gold, which moved above $432/ounce today. But so far, that move in the bullion hasn’t helped gold stocks a great deal.
The market is still holding up well in the face of the higher interest rates and crude oil prices that threaten to take it down. We’ll see how long it lasts.