7:00am – One half hour into the trading session and the overall stock market made a big jump into the green. A big gap up.
Of course, things might be stabilizing now but for the most part the major stock indexes opened the trading day in positive territory.
7:15am – The major indexes are now in the red. This turn from positive to negative happened in just the first hour of trading. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke speaks today, so I wonder how this will affect the market at that time.
Stock Indexes: $DJI -8.70 $COMP -4.49 $SPX -0.88 $NYA -10.8385
Ben Bernanke on Capitol Hill
7:40am – Ben Bernanke speaks on Capitol Hill with a rather “sour view of the economy”. And the stock market is pretty much going haywire at this point, with much volatility.
Stock Indexes: $DJI -72.05 $COMP -22.95 $SPX -7.98 $NYA -50.1149
Bernanke offers downbeat view of economy, but no action
WASHINGTON (AP) —The U.S. economy has weakened and the Federal Reserve is ready to take further action to bolster growth if conditions don’t improve, Chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional panel Tuesday.
But Bernanke provided no clues about what steps the Fed might take or whether any action was imminent.
Bernanke has said the Fed can only do so much to help the economy. In his testimony, he pointed again to the Congressional Budget Office’s warning that the economy could suffer a shallow recession next year if Congress is unable to reach a budget deal that would avert steep tax hikes and across-the-board spending cuts.
“The most effective way that the Congress could help to support the economy right now would be to work to address the nation’s fiscal challenges in a way that takes into account both the need for long-run stability and the fragility of the recovery,” Bernanke said. “Doing so earlier rather than later would help reduce uncertainty and boost household and business confidence.”
9:08am – In the past hour the major indexes have crossed back over into positive territory, as Ben Bernanke is still being questioned on Capitol Hill.
CNBC: “Stocks moving firmly into positive territory.”
Stock Indexes: $DJI +47.76 $COMP +7.36 $SPX +4.66 $NYA +17.8869
9:25am – And Ben Bernanke’s testimony on Capitol Hill has concluded. Let’s see how the stock market reacts now. The major indexes are still in the green.
***BREAK***
11:02am – Less than 2 hours to go in the trading session. The major indices are still in the green. The WSEF is all in the green for the day, except for $BIP. Telecom stocks have been added to the portfolio: AT&T $T, Sprint Nextel $S
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI) is up +81.85 (.64%) at 12,809.06, but still well below the 13,000 high at the beginning of May 2012.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +81.85 $COMP +13.59 $SPX +9.27 $NYA +44.47
11:55am – Heading toward the final hour of trading. Mattel ($MAT) and Hasbro ($HAS) stocks have been in a bit of a slump the past 3 months. As CNBC reports, kids nowadays are “digitizing their fun” as opposed to “analog toys”.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +94.83 $COMP +17.78 $SPX +10.93 $NYA +50.9162
Closing Bell
12:00pm – And we are now in the final hour of trading. The stock indexes are well into the green at this point and will more than likely finish in positive territory.
The only question is whether or not the stock market can hold on to this rally, and can we go up even further in this final hour. Overall, it’s a big comeback. This has only been the 2nd big rally in the past 9 days.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +92.90 $COMP +17.96 $SPX +10.72 $NYA +51.9778
12:15pm – Facebook ($FB) slumps back down to $28.17 from around $31.
Pharma stocks to watch: Arena Pharmaceuticals ($ARNA) and Vivus, Inc. ($VVUS) both have new obesity drugs that are awaiting FDA approval.
The major indexes have dropped a bit in the final hour but are still maintaining a strong positive rally.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +84.77 $COMP +15.09 $SPX +9.83 $NYA +47.9406
President Obama Taking The Heat for Words Said
A President’s poor choice of words and the media’s poor reporting of context
The President’s choice of words was not by any means the best choice of words. After nearly four years in office and the hyper-partisan political games being played on both sides of the aisle; the President should have known better than to say, “If you’ve got a business. You didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” He should of known it would have been taken out of context and distorted to fit whatever narrative is trying to be created. So the fact that the President used those words combined with the fact that the President is usually more careful with his words begs a couple of questions. What was the context surrounding the President’s words? What exactly did he mean?
Of course, Republicans wanted to take his words out of context to give President Obama’s words a more negative slant towards small business owners. But, here’s the rest of the message that President Obama was leading up to that makes the message more clear:
“The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.”
12:30pm – 30 minutes until the closing bell. Major indexes are still in the green and in rally mode. I’m expecting a last push in the final 10 minutes. This could be exciting.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +65.73 $COMP +9.81 $SPX +8.28 $NYA +42.8831
12:39pm – About 20 minutes to the closing bell, and the stock market is trying to hold on to today’s rally. The market is heating up just a bit toward the close. Let’s see if it’ll jump up.
CNBC reports that the drought and heat wave in the midwest could impact corn prices.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +61.53 $COMP +7.20 $SPX +7.69 $NYA +41.0101
12:52pm – With less than 10 minutes to the closing bell, the stock market is pushing upward slightly, and we are going to finish in the green for today.
With the announcement of Marissa Mayer as the new CEO of Yahoo!, there hasn’t been a significant pop in Yahoo! stock ($YHOO), but Marissa Mayer is a rock star in Silicon Valley, the 20th employeed of Google and 1st female engineer. She also has been on the board of Walmart, and would put a strong emphasis on technology and innovation at Yahoo!, as opposed to the media-driven emphasis the longtime search engine site has been employing.
12:55pm – The market has pushed a bit more upward, 5 minutes to the closing bell.
The biggest NASDAQ gainer is Priceline ($PCLN), following by Intuitive Surgical ($ISRG).
1:00pm – And it’s the closing bell. “Do you know where your money is?”
Stocks in comeback mode.
Stock Indexes: $DJI +77.27 $COMP +13.10 $SPX +9.95 $NYA +51.0961
Have a good day, everyone! I’m out.