The market paused a bit today after a strong showing yesterday, and the major indices finished mixed, but none strayed too far from the unchanged mark. The Dow Industrials index was higher by 14 points (+0.1%) to 10698, and the S&P 500 gained 1 points to 1245, but the Nasdaq slipped a point to 2217. The Russell 2000 indicated a somewhat broader weakness than did the major indices, as it fell 5 points (-0.7%) to 683. all-time high at 689, a gain of 6 points (+0.8%). The Dow Transports lost another 0.4%, but the Utilities gained again, this time up 0.7%. Bonds moved higher pushing yields down slightly, the 5-year to 4.12% and the 10-year to 4.30%.
Market internals were negative, on about the same volume as yesterday. Advances/declines were 9/10 on the NYSE and 8/11 on the Nasdaq, with up/down volume running about 9/10 on both exchanges. New highs/lows were 349/21 on the NYSE and 160/17 on the Nasdaq.
The biggest winners on the day, by far, were the gold & silver stocks, up 4.0%. HMOs were up 1.3% and biotechs gained 0.9%. Moving lower were the airlines (-1.5%), steel stocks (-1.3%) and housing stocks (-1.1%).
Crude oil prices pulled back after this morning’s release of the government’s oil inventory, and finished down a little more than a dollar at $60.86/barrel. The dollar index got smacked around pretty good again today, and the dollar index was down 0.9% to 88.01. The dollar weakness helped push gold prices higher, up to $436/ounce.
