From Briefing.com: 4:35 pm : A renewed sense of optimism helped stocks trade with impressive gains for the entire session, but a weak closing took the exclamation point off of what was the stock market's third straight gain.
The major indices spent the entire session in the green, bolstered by broad-based buying. All 10 major sectors in the S&P 500 closed higher as a result.
Industrial stocks (+5.5%) and consumer discretionary stocks (+5.2%) registered the best gains. Their advance came amid improved investor confidence, which prompted many participants to look for opportunities beyond the financial sector (+2.9%).
Financials have provided leadership in recent weeks, but actually lagged for much of the session. Financials were able to close in-line with the broader market, though, following a muted response to news that the FASB has decided to ease mark-to-market accounting rules for banks. The decision was widely expected.
Health care was a relative laggard for the second straight session, advancing just 0.1%. The sector was held back by continued weakness in pharmaceutical stocks (-0.9%).
Broad-based buying has taken the S&P 500 up almost 6% during the course of the past three sessions, while the Dow is up just over 6% during that time. The Nasdaq is up 6.7% over the past three sessions, and is now sporting a 1.6% year-to-date gain. The S&P 500 and Dow are still down 7.6% and 9.1% for the year, respectively.
The upbeat tone was undeterred by a worse-than-expected weekly jobless claims report, largely because the market knows that labor conditions remain gloomy. Initial jobless claims jumped 12,000 to 669,000 for the week ending March 28. They were expected to come in at 650,000. Continuing claims exceeded expectations as well. They totaled 5.73 million, while economists expected 5.59 million claims. The reaction to tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls report could prove to be an affirmation of investors' growing willingness to look past data that isn't truly horrendous.
February factory orders climbed a more-than-expected 1.8%, providing another headline to feed optimism. The consensus had called for an increase of 1.5%. Orders for the prior month were revised lower to reflect a 3.5% decline.
Optimism was shared by overseas markets. Britain's FTSE advanced 4.3%, Germany's DAX gained 6.1%, and France's CAC climbed 5.4%. Their gains followed news that the ECB cut its target interest rate 25 basis points to 1.25%, while ECB President Trichet indicated more cuts could follow.
Coordinated actions from the G-20 meeting in London also made headlines. The G-20 agreed to double financing for the IMF to nearly $500 billion.
With investors feeling emboldened, many moved against gold. Gold futures contracts finished pit trading at $908.90 per ounce, down 2.0%.
Friday's focus turns to the government's nonfarm payrolls report for March and the March ISM Nonmanufacturing Index. Fed Chairman Bernanke will also be delivering an address at a credit market symposium.DJ30 +216.48 NASDAQ +51.03 NQ100 +3.3% R2K +4.9% SP400 +4.3% SP500 +23.30 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 2204/2.82 bln/591 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2617/1.87 bln/370
4:11PM Valence Tech applies for Federal Loans to build U.S.-based lithium-ion battery production facilities (VLNC) 2.17 +0.03 : Co announces it has submitted an application under the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVMIP) for up to $608 million in low interest loans. These loans will help finance the construction of a new $760 million world-class lithium iron magnesium phosphate battery manufacturing facility to be located in Central Texas.
4:10PM Micron reports Q2 (Feb) results, misses on revs (MU) 4.63 +0.45 : Reports Q2 (Feb) loss of $0.97 per share, including items may not be comparable to the First Call consensus of ($0.64); revenues fell 29.2% year/year to $993 mln vs the $1.14 bln consensus. These results reflect a number of cash and non-cash items resulting in a net charge of $120 mln in the 2Q09. The co ended the quarter with cash and investments of $932 mln. The imbalance of supply and demand for semiconductor memory products continued in the second quarter, resulting in significant decreases in the company's per gigabit average selling prices compared to the preceding quarter. Revenue from sales of DRAM products decreased approximately 30% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter principally due to a 30% decrease in selling prices. Sales volumes for DRAM products remained relatively stable comparing the same periods. Revenue from sales of NAND Flash products decreased 20% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter due to a 13% decrease in selling prices and an eight percent decrease in sales volume. Memory production in the second quarter was relatively flat compared to the preceding quarter... The company's gross margin on sales of memory products improved 11 percent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter, resulting from decreases in per gigabit manufacturing costs and the benefit in the second quarter from sales of products previously written-down, partially offset by decreases in selling prices.
10:07AM Intel and GE to form healthcare alliance (INTC) 15.51 +0.48 : GE (GE) and Intel (INTC) announces an alliance to market and develop home-based health technologies that will help seniors live independently and patients with chronic conditions manage their care from the comfort of their home or wherever they choose.
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