Reply #65: A final splash of closing blather

[54anickel]

Close Dow +83.11 at 10181.74, S&P +8.77 at 1104.96, Nasdaq +23.83 at 1860.72: What started as yet another boring day of trading (see the relatively flat values for Monday and Tuesday) ended up being a fairly exciting one as the indices put together a broad-based rally... The advance began at 12 ET, and involved the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 shooting higher by approximately 90, 21, and 9 points, respectively... Solid sector leadership and bullish market internals were responsible for the uptick, although volume levels certainly did not support the case of the bulls...

Volume was once again anemic - barely surpassing the totals set Monday, which was the lightest day of the year - and suggested conviction on the part of buyers was not strong... Despite this fact, the major indices still managed to make headway through a number of technical barriers - with most of this prompted by a 4% plunge in the price of crude oil to $43.47/bbl... This is the fourth day in a row crude oil has traded lower, and conditions this morning (a drop in both the American Petroleum Institute and Energy Information Administration's weekly oil inventories, and the crash of two Russian airplanes) certainly didn't support that...

Rather, crude oil did the reverse as traders took profits from the initial pop last week (near $50/bbl)... Brokerage, biotech, oil service, and semiconductor were all standout sectors and helped spearhead the indices' march higher... Just about ever industry group joined in, with the only laggard being homebuilding... The area was hit following the weaker than expected July New Home Sales report (to 1.13 mln versus the consensus of 1.30 mln)... Other economic reports were more encouraging - July Durable Orders rose 1.7% (consensus of +1.0%) as orders for defense, electrical equipment, and primary metals increased noticeably...SOX +1.1, NYSE Adv/Dec 2329/1009, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 2059/989