Hard not to marvel at the US stock market’s ongoing ability to rally amid an array of potential setbacks.
Oil above $105/barrel and record low monthly new-home sales were just a couple obstacles easily hurdled by bulls today. Concerns about Portugal’s debt problems also proved no match for rallying stocks, though the “no” vote on austerity measures came out just as the market was closing (it did weigh on the euro, which slipped under $1.40.)
Materials sector leads stocks higher, followed by consumer discretionary (again, shrugging off oil’s run-up) and tech stocks.
DJIA rises 67 to 12086, and Nasdaq Comp adds 14 to 2698. S&P 500 ends almost 4 points higher at 1297. NYSE volume was just about on the daily average around 4.2 billion shares traded; until the late surge in the last hour, the pace was weaker.
That makes the Dow a winner in four of the last five sessions, taking it to its highest close since March 9, before the Japanese earthquake. The S&P and Nasdaq are also up four of the past five sessions.
Stocks and oil weren’t the only gainers. Gold rose for a sixth consecutive session, to a fresh record high of $1.437 an ounce. Silver, too, was up sharply, finishing over $37 an ounce, its highest close since February 1980 (think the Hunt Brothers.)
“Now the DJIA’s peeking above the 50-day moving average (12053), which has capped the index’s rally the previous two sessions,” Dow Jones’ Tomi Kilgore writes:
Meanwhile, the DJIA is still below the extension of an uptrend line starting at the August lows, which currently comes in around 12200. Since it was the break of this trendline that contributed to last week’s mini-market tumble, it would take a close back above the line to clear the negative technical overhang.
For the S&P 500, the uptrend line resumes around 1340.
The bulls will be gunning for that 12000 level, you can count on that.
