Stock Market News for March 26, 2010 - Market News
After rallying initially, U.S. stocks ended almost unchanged yesterday as renewed concerns about Greece and Portugal’s debt problems weighed on investor sentiment. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet’s comments that International Monetary Fund’s involvement in Greece’s rescue plan would be a "very, very bad" thing further disappointed investors.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking before a House committee said that record-low rates are still needed to keep the economy on track. But those remarks were not enough to stem the selloff. As investors shunned equities, the market’s measure of volatility, the CBOE Vix, which fell to a two-and-a-half year low Wednesday, shot up 4.8% to 18.40.
US stocks futures are up this morning on reports European leaders have agreed to a plan to rescue Greece. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 25, or 0.2%, to 10,816. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2.80, or 0.23%, to 1,165.50, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 8.00, or 0.4%, to 1,957.50. This means the DJIA and NASDAQ shares are heading toward week's end with a 1% gain and the S&P500 a slight advance.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 5.06 points, or 0.05%, to close the day at 10,841. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed down 1.99 points, or 0.17%, at 1,165.73. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day slightly below unchanged. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing shares topped losers four to three on volume of 1.16 billion shares.
Shares in Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) jumped after the companies reported better-than-expected results. Best Buy’s (NYSE:BBY) strong forecast pointed towards improved consumer spending. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) jumped 5% to $42.19 after it raised its second quarter sales and earnings forecast.
Only three of the S&P500 ten industry sectors managed to close with gains: consumer services (+0.6%), financials (+0.4%) and tech (+0.1%). Those ending the day in the red were led by basic materials (-2.2%), oil and gas (-0.6%), telecom (-0.7%), utilities (-0.7%), health care (-0.5%), industrials (-0.4%) and consumer goods (-0.4%).
This week's Treasury auctions of $118 billion have so far failed to garner much support, and it was no different yesterday as the sale of $32 billion in 7-year notes saw a yield of 3.374%, versus the average forecast of 3.372%. The bid-to-cover ratio of 2.61 missed the 2.72 average from prior sales. The US dollar climbed 0.2% against a basket of currencies to 81.97.
The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
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