The Week In Review
7/5-7/9/10
July 6, 2010U.S. stocks rallied at the start Tuesday as investors returned from a three-day weekend with abated worries about the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 105 points, or 1.1%, to 9,791. The S&P 500 gained 12 points to 1,035, with gains in all industry groups led by materials. The Nasdaq Composite gained 30 points to 2,124. Well, everything is cheap. Barrons ran articles pointing out a number of blue chip companies trading for less than 10 times earnings and providing dividend yields of 3% or more which is better than 10 year Treasury bonds. That's the definition of cheap. After the first half an hour the averages pushed higher. Everthing looks good. Intel is higher following two upgrades. AMD and Micron were also upgraded. In the oil space, BP is jumping 6% on rumors they will raise capital from a private equity firm to prevent any hostile takeover. Freeport McMoRan is up 4.5% and US Steel is up 5%. The financials look good. A number of the big banks are trading for less than 10 times earnings. BB&T is up 3% on an upgrade. The insurance stocks look good. Prudential is up 3% on an upgrade. In the retail space, Aeropostale is up 3% on a positive article in Barrons. Walgreens and Smithfield Foods are both up over 3% on positive business data. After seven straight down days, we're finally getting a good up day. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages slowly gave up their rally. By the middle of the afternoon the averages had given up all their gains. Here we go again. In the last hour the averages vacillated back and forth only to rally into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 57 points to close at 9744. The Nasdaq closed up 2 points at 2094, and the S&P 500 Index rose 5 points to close at 1028.
July 5, 2010
Closed for the 4th of July. Happy Independence.