Reply #55: 12:12 EST numbers and (happy) blather

[UpInArms]

Dow 10,451.59 -12.86 (-0.12%)
Nasdaq 2,034.71 +4.06 (+0.20%)
S&P 500 1,186.28 +0.72 (+0.06%)
10-Yr Bond 4.083 +0.15 (+0.37%)

NYSE Volume 817,362,000
Nasdaq Volume 792,919,000

12:00PM: Stocks struggle to gain much traction midday, as investors find little in the way of market-moving data to extend yesterday's broad-based rally... Meanwhile, initial claims, which were compiled during a key week in which the May employment survey was conducted, fell 20K to 321K, indicating continued optimism from businesses about the state of the economy...

But even though economic growth remains strong and the worst fears about inflation have been dispelled by yesterday's encouraging CPI report, the temptation of consolidating recent gains following the largest three-day rally since last November has left the indices trading in subdued fashion and kept sector leadership mixed... Energy (+1.5%) has paced the way higher, benefiting from a rebound in oil prices... Crude oil futures ($47.65/bbl +$0.40) have climbed after OPEC said it may cut output if inventories build too fast... Technology (+0.4%) has been the most influential leader to the upside, benefiting from a proposed $4.0 bln share buyback at Motorola (MOT 17.52 +0.62) as well as leadership from ORCL (+1.5%), AAPL (+2.9%) and YHOO (+2.4%)...

Interest-rate sensitive areas like Financial and Utilities have been mixed, finding little direction from lackluster action in Treasurys... The benchmark 10-year note is up just 2 ticks to yield 4.07%.... Pacing the way lower has been the Materials sector (-0.7%), as a strengthening dollar has weighed on Aluminum, Gold and Steel... Health Care has also been under pressure, amid widespread selling in the Drug space, while Industrials has traded lower amid weakness in Transportation, especially Airline stocks...