Reply #56: Closin'

[54anickel]

Dow 10,691.45 +15.00 (+0.14%)
Nasdaq 2,162.55 +2.71 (+0.13%)
S&P 500 1,205.72 +2.34 (+0.19%)
10-yr Bond 4.076% -0.056
30-yr Bond 4.708% -0.071
NYSE Volume 1,693,766,000
Nasdaq Volume 2,372,376,000

Close Dow +15.00 at 10691.45, S&P +2.34 at 1205.72, Nasdaq +2.71 at 2162.55: Renewed investor confidence late in the day keeps the year-end rally intact, as many of the market averages fight off higher oil prices to close at new highs on strong volumes... Stocks, however, were under pressure most of the day as colder temperatures in the Northeast and heating oil supply concerns sparked a rally in the crude oil futures ($44.15/bbl +$2.33) following a disappointing weekly oil report from the Dept. of Energy...
But despite distillate inventories coming in unchanged (consensus +1.0 mln barrels) and crude stocks falling 100K barrels (consensus -1.5 mln barrels), as the commodity embarked on its largest gain (+5.3%) in nearly a month, the market showed resilience and shrugged off most of the uncertainty... Earlier, equities showed some relative strength after Sprint (FON 24.05 -1.05) confirmed its plans to acquire Nextel (NXTL 28.87 -1.12) for $35 bln... Better than expected earnings from Lehman (LEH 87.75 +2.10) and Best Buy (BBY 58.85 +2.81), which also issued Q4 (Feb) guidance in line with forecasts, kept aggressive selling efforts in check early on and proved noteworthy into the close of trading...

A better than expected December NY Empire State Index, which rose sharply to 29.9 (consensus 20.0) from 18.9 in November and suggested continued growth in manufacturing activity, was also a contributing factor... The Philadelphia Housing Index surged 3.3% as all the major homebuilders hit new 52-week highs... Homebuilder Lennar (LEN 57.00 +6.17) lead the charge after it beat analysts' Q4 (Nov) expectations and raised FY05 guidance above street forecasts...

Other sectors closing higher were disk drive, networking, materials, financial, energy, health care, retail while biotech, telecom service, airline and consumer staples never did recover enough to turn positive... Also lending support to the overall bullish sentiment was a rally in the bond market (+12/32) which knocked the yield on the 10-year note down to 4.07%... Separately, Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS 46.56 +17.56), the largest of 20 new IPOs out this week, surged more than 60% on its first day of trading becoming the largest casino operator based on market cap...Russell 2000 +0.8, S&P Midcap 400 +0.6, NYSE Adv/Dec 2236/1097, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1836/1315

3:30PM : Stocks continue to trade in a narrow range heading into the last half hour of trading... With regards to earnings tomorrow, investors will have their hands full with the largest day of earnings in over a month... Before the bell, FedEx (FDX 98.72 -0.78) and Goldman Sachs (GS 109.03 -0.85) will report quarterly results while Nike (NKE 85.52 -1.01), Darden Restaurants (DRI 28.15 +0.13), KB Home (KBH 105.55 +4.55) and Adobe Systems (ADBE 62.83 -1.33) report earnings after the close...

Notable economic data include November Housing Starts (consensus 1980K), Building Permits (consensus 2010K), Q3 Current Account (consensus -$171.0 bln) and weekly jobless claims (consensus 342K) out at 8:30 ET... The December Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index (consensus 20.5) will be released around 12:00 ET...NYSE Adv/Dec 2013/1286, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1669/1440

3:00PM : Indices show little vigor, having barely budged in the past hour... Aside from a huge surge in oil prices, added supply from several public offerings this week may also be stalling a meaningful move in either direction... The largest new issue during the busiest IPO week in four years, however, Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS 46.52 +17.52), has been welcomed with open arms... Shares of the casino operator, which priced 23.8 mln shares at $29 a share last night, have surged more than 60% during its debut, making it the largest public casino operator based on market capitalization at over $15.0 bln...NYSE Adv/Dec 1973/1307, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1582/1502

2:30PM : Market continues to trade with a tinge of caution despite market internals indicating an overall bullish bias... Advancers have outpaced decliners at both the NYSE and the Nasdaq most of the day... Volumes have been above recent sessions and above average with this Friday's triple witching options expiration adding to the increased level of activity (NYSE 1.2 bln, Nasdaq 1.7 bln)... Homebuilding, disk drive, drug, financial and materials remain influential leaders to the upside and while relative weakness remains in biotech, telecom service and airline... NYSE Adv/Dec 2001/1250, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1591/1473

2:00PM : Stocks continue to bounce around near the flat line, showing little direction, as blue chip gains are few and far between... On the Dow, Merck (MRK 30.47 +0.85) has lead the list of gainers after Raymond James upgraded the stock to Strong Buy from Market Perform... The firm believes ongoing concerns related to the liability from Vioxx have obscured the drug maker's true value...

The move has helped pull rival Pfizer (PFE 28.08 +0.75) higher in sympathy while a Smith Barney upgrade on DuPont (DD 48.15 +0.70), to Buy from Hold, has kept shares of the specialty chemical manufacturer in positive territory...NYSE Adv/Dec 2042/1195, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1606/1420

1:30PM : The broader averages retreat from earlier levels, despite a continued surge in oil prices, as buyers return from the sidelines... The market's resilience in the face of a 6% rise in crude oil ($44.40/bbl +$2.58) has renewed some optimism in equities and prompted investors to get back in so as to not miss out on a year-end rally... Options expiration this Friday may have lent some support to the knee-jerk reaction that pushed the Dow up 25 points in five minutes while technical buying, as the S&P 500 pushes through the 1200 level, may also be playing a role in the recent rebound... NYSE Adv/Dec 1900/1324, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1615/1391

1:00PM : More of the same as equities hover below the unchanged mark... Small-cap stocks, however, which have pulled back somewhat in sympathy with the major indices, have maintained modest gains... Contributing to the buying interest has been the overriding theme of the "January Effect" - a period from December 15 (today) to January 15 that has often exceeded monthly average returns over the last 20 years... Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 small-company index has surged nearly 20% from its August low, more than double the 7% year-to-date gain on the S&P 500 large-cap index...

The S&P 600 SmallCap Index has also traded higher (+0.15%)...Russell 2000 +0.17, NYSE Adv/Dec 1914/1293, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1488/1494

12:30PM : Indices hold steady at lower levels midday, but sellers remain sidelined in some areas... Homebuilding has done particularly well following 34% earnings growth and upbeat guidance from Lennar Corp (LEN 55.25 +4.42)... Shares of the homebuilder, which beat Q4 (Nov) forecasts by ten cents and raised FY05 guidance above analysts's expectations, have surged more than 9%...

Housing stocks as a whole have taken notice (+2.4%), despite weekly mortgage applications showing a decline (-1.4%) in 3 of the last 4 weeks earlier this morning, as bonds continue to rally and keep yields on the 10-year note near 4.08%...NYSE Adv/Dec 1855/1319, Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1485/1465

Advances & Declines
NYSE Nasdaq
Advances 2271 (65%) 1836 (55%)
Declines 1074 (30%) 1315 (39%)
Unchanged 144 (4%) 146 (4%)

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Up Vol* 1109 (65%) 1233 (52%)
Down Vol* 542 (31%) 1085 (45%)
Unch. Vol* 43 (2%) 44 (1%)

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New Hi's 338 175
New Lo's 5 19


And the buck -

Last trade 81.66 Change -0.69 (-0.84%)

Settle 81.63 Settle Time 15:37

Open 82.28 Previous Close 82.32

High 82.56 Low 81.42

Last tick: 2004-12-15 16:30:24 ET
30-min delayed quote.