Reply #52: Closing numbers and blather

[54anickel]

Looks like some bargain hunters came out of the woodwork again. :eyes:

Dow 10,241.26 -69.69 (-0.68%)
Nasdaq 1,937.74 -19.52 (-1.00%)
S&P 500 1,113.99 -7.54 (-0.67%)
10-yr Bond 4.602% +0.032
30-yr Bond 5.375% +0.027

NYSE Volume 1,505,145,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,773,632,000

Close Dow -69.69 at 10,241.26, S&P -7.57 at 1,113.96, Nasdaq -19.52 at 1,937.74: It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for the market today, as the major averages spent the first portion of the session drifting lower and the second part paring its losses... As a result, while the market finished the session with notable losses, the major averages managed to close well off their respective session lows... Much of the negative bias was tied to continued concerns regarding rising interest rates and inflation, as well as the expected slow-down in earnings, as comparisons become more difficult in the second half of the year...
The latter concern became particularly obvious in the face of generally in-line to better than expected April same store sales reports, which failed to incite buying enthusiasm, with the retail sector being among today's biggest laggards... Other laggards of note included the hardware, telecom, networking, biotech, gold, oil services, steel, banking, and broker/dealer groups... There was little leadership to the upside to speak of...

Today's economic reports included the Initial Claims report at 315K (consensus 335K), which pointed to continued improvement in the lay-offs picture, and the Q1 Productivity report at 3.5% (in-line with consensus), which showed Unit Labor Costs increasing just 0.5%, for their first increase this year... Despite recent increases in commodity prices, with crude oil at a new 13-year high today, stability in unit labor costs is a major restraining factor in the outlook for inflation (see The Big Picture column for more details)... Finally, much of the market's hesitation was tied to participants' hesitation ahead of tomorrow's Employment report, which is likely to be market-moving (see the Looking Ahead column for more details)...

Elsewhere, the bond market closed with mild losses across its yield curve and the 10-year note down 6/32, bringing its yield up to 4.60%...NYSE Adv/Dec 633/2720, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 916/2249


Have a great night marketeers :hi: