Market Talk

US stocks spike in a volatile session that sees the trickle of leaks about the stress tests results turn into a torrent, and ADP gives investors a reason to feel good about the economy losing half a million jobs.

DJIA rises 102 to 8512, S&P 500 rises 16 to 920, Nasdaq Comp adds 5 to 1759. Crude crosses $56/barrel, and hits a year high.

Financials spike amid a flood of reports on the stress-test results; the runup to tomorrow’s official release has been so full of leaks and hype and inexplicable rallies we wonder if the market is setting itself up for the mother of all sell-on-the-news selloffs.

At this point, the only number we don’t have from the stress test report is how many pages it runs. At least half of the banks’ “grades” have been leaked.

Continue reading…

The line's shorter than it was, but it's still long.

ADP reported this morning that “only” 491,000 private sector jobs were lost in April, which is well below expectations and would be the smallest job loss since October.

ADP’s had mixed results in the past with this survey, but if 491,000 job losses is close to accurate, it could mark a turning point for the economy, Justin Fox writes at Time’s Curious Capitalist blog.

“A marked slowing in the pace of job destruction would be the clearest sign yet that the economy has in fact turned and may even start growing later this year,” he says.

Continue reading…

Bank of America’s (BAC) rally today is puzzling, to say the least.

WSJ reported the bank may need $35 billion in additional capital based on results of the government’s stress tests, well above the $10 billion reported earlier in the week. Nevertheless, stock traders have leapt into buying, with BofA shares up 8% in midday trading.

Despite the rise, there are still tons of questions surrounding the Charlotte bank, Barron’s Bob O’Brien writes.

Continue reading…

So we had a nice, straightforward little snippet ready, a tight 100 words that described the market. Then the ADP report hit, and blew up our crystal clear copy. S&P futures are currently up 6.20, with Dow futures up 65, after both were down earlier and we were sent back to the rewrite desk.

ADP said the economy shed 491,000 jobs in April, well off of the market’s expectations that the report would come in showing a loss of 650,000. That quickly turned stock futures around, because it fits in with the general theme that’s buoyed this rally, which is that the rate of decline is improving. The decline is still there, mind you.

Continue reading…