As the closing bell sounds:
Dow Jones industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA : up 110 points, or 0.7%, at 16,332.
S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX : up 11.3 points, or 0.6%, at 1,872
Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP : up 11.7 points, or 0.3%, at 4,319.
Minutes before the closing bell:
Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA up 88 points, or 0.6%, near high of day. Dow component Nike Inc. /quotes/zigman/235840/delayed /quotes/nls/nke NKE reports earnings after the bell with shares down 0.2%.
S&P 500 Index /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX up 9.2 points, or 0.5%, near high of day
Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP up 6.6 points, or 0.2%, near low of day.
Reports on unemployment, housing and manufacturing are hinting at a spring economic thaw that has helped produce gains.
Twitter exchange with Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer at Commonwealth Financial Network:
Even if rate hikes start earlier than thought in 2015, “normal” interest rates are still at least three years off, says Joel Naroff, the President and founder of Naroff Economic Advisors, a strategic economic consulting firm.
Stocks are still trading higher, with the S&P 500 hovering near its record closing high.
Telecoms and financials are still leading the gains on the benchmark index.
Major banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo – all gained over 2%.
Financial stocks do well on days when economic data are better than expected – which was the case today.
In other markets today, gold settles at lowest level of the month, down 0.8% at $1,330.
Oil prices fell, with the expiring April contract slipping back below $100 a barrel.
The dollar index continued to gain some ground on Thursday.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Thursday lowered Russia’s credit rating outlook to negative from stable and reaffirmed the country’s ‘BBB’ foreign currency rating.
Read the market pulse by Sue Chang.
The main indexes are marching higher, with the Dow up more than 110 points.
In fact, stocks are trading at exact same levels this time yesterday – e.i. before the Fed statement and before Yellen’s news conference.
SPX /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX +0.6%
DJIA /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA +0.7%
COMP /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP +0.4%
Financial markets overreacted to Fed chair Janet Yellen’s interest rate comments, says Tim Gramatovich, chief investment officer at Peritus Asset Management. He says “people are creating volatility to trade it,” in a relatively “boring and benign environment.”
All three stock indexes are in the green in early afternoon.
Dow Jones Industrials /quotes/zigman/627449/realtime DJIA is up 0.8%.
S&P 500 /quotes/zigman/3870025/realtime SPX is 0.6% higher.
Nasdaq /quotes/zigman/12633936/realtime COMP rose 0.5%.
Stocks of 3D printer makers were weighed down by news that Hewlett-Packard /quotes/zigman/229301/delayed /quotes/nls/hpq HPQ will enter the market in June.
“H-P Labs has been working hard to introduce 3-D Printing technology that overcomes the two biggest problems with the current technology in the marketplace: speed and quality,” a company spokesman told MarketWatch.
H-P is expected to become a formidable player in the industry, given its technology and distribution channel, said analyst Amit Daryanni at RBC Capital.
All three 3D printer makers were down Thursday.
ExOne /quotes/zigman/13926498/delayed /quotes/nls/xone XONE fell 9.5%.
3D Systems Corp. /quotes/zigman/5280737/delayed /quotes/nls/ddd DDD shed 3.1%.
Stratasys /quotes/zigman/13021436/delayed /quotes/nls/ssys SSYS dropped 1.8%.
President Barack Obama’s announcement on Thursday that the U.S. is preparing broader sanctions–including restrictions on key sectors of the Russian economy–in the event that Russia encroaches further on Ukraine is setting the stage for a potential currency war, according to Steven Englander, global head of G10 FX strategy at CitiFX.
One advantage using finance as a weapon is that it can be scaled up or down as needed, and is much more reversible than military actions. It is also quicker than traditional trade sanctions to have an impact, and arguably is more likely to hit decision-makers and those who have access to them than trade sanctions, which often hit the poor and almost always create profit-making opportunities for the well-connected in sanctions-running.
In the short-term, the global impact of a financial stand off between the U.S. and Russia may be limited. But in the long term, a financial market warfare is likely to result in more “home bias” investments and a premium on gold and physical commodities, said Englander.
In other markets, intermediate-term Treasury prices fell Thursday after a round of economic data, extending a sharp drop from the previous session on Federal Reserve indications that earlier rate hikes may be on the horizon.
For more, read Ben Eisen’s report on Treasurys.
Home builder stocks, which rallied nicely yesterday, boosted by K.B. Home’s results, are giving up some of those gains today.
For more on home builders and home builder ETFs, read the Tell Post by MarketWatch’s Vic Reklaitis.
While chart watchers got fired up when a play on home builders broke out to a record high last month, the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF /quotes/zigman/477673/delayed /quotes/nls/xhb XHB hasn’t done much since then.
For those who are interested in bitcoin – MarketWatch invites you to a live video chat today at 2 p.m. Eastern.
In the wake of one of bitcoin’s most alarming events — the disappearance of the bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox along with thousands of its users’ bitcoins — how should the average investor approach the virtual currency?
Join reporter Saumya Vaishampayan as she moderates a discussion on the cryptocurrency with Chuck Jaffe, a senior columnist for MarketWatch, Cody Willard, who writes the Revolution Investing newsletter for MarketWatch, and Jaron Lukasiewicz, chief executive of Coinsetter, a bitcoin company based in New York.
From Benjamin Pimentel’s short news story:
Shares of Q2 Holdings /quotes/zigman/29796298/delayed /quotes/nls/qtwo QTWO jumped 29% as the cloud-based financial services software company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. /quotes/zigman/527698/delayed /quotes/nls/clf CLF retreated Thursday after its stock’s price target was lowered while Guess Inc. /quotes/zigman/166567/delayed /quotes/nls/ges GES slid after the company released a weak outlook.
For more on winner and losers in today’s trading, read our regular Movers and Shakers column.
As investors look beyond the headline numbers on the Philly Fed index and leading indicators reports, the initial spike in the main indexes is fading somewhat.
5 of 10 main sectors on the S&P 500 are trading higher with the telecoms and financials stocks in the lead.
AT&T /quotes/zigman/398198/delayed /quotes/nls/t T and JPMorgan Chase /quotes/zigman/272085/delayed /quotes/nls/jpm JPM are leading gains on the Dow.
Today’s reading on existing-home sales roughly met expectations.
In addition, the Conference Board’s leading economic index rose 0.5% in February, suggesting that any weather-related volatility will be short lived.
Keep in mind that reports on the Philly Fed index and existing-home sales get a “Market Moving Indicator” label on the WSJ’s handy economic calendar, while the leading-indicators report just merits a lowly “Other Key Indicator” label.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Roughly an hour into today’s session, stocks are trading near their session highs.
They’re showing moderate gains after erasing early losses following that upbeat Philly Fed report and other data at 10 a.m.
So stock bulls are feeling at least somewhat happy.
SPX +0.3%
Dow +0.4%
Nasdaq +0.3%
Photo credit: Getty Images
Rob Carnell at ING has an upbeat take on the Philly Fed data. He writes in emailed comments this morning:
“The Philly Fed index of manufacturing activity’s main index bounced back from -6.3 in February to +9.0 in March, taking it to roughly the same level as it was back in January. The survey compilers suggest that this reflects a return to normality after bad weather last month.”
He sees America back possibly in firmer growth mode:
“If we see a similar improvement in the manufacturing ISM, then market expectations that the US economy is back in growth mode will firm up, and lift US Treasury yields.”
The best thing in those three economic reports appears to be the Philly Fed number.
The Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index rebounded to a reading of 9.0 in March from a negative 6.3 reading in February, well above a MarketWatch-compiled economist forecast of 3.5, says our short story.
David Ader of CRT Capital Group offers this reaction in emailed comments:
“On the whole this is a bit better than expected with Phil Fed implying a gain to ISM though we note the softer employment compoment and divergence between prices paid and prices up. So a bit more of a mix when looking under the hood (and with Exisiting Home Sales a pick up in distressed, cash only, investors for what that’s worth).”
Nearly 40 minutes into the session, the main indexes now have turned positive.
They had begun to lift off their session lows before that trio of economic reports hit, then continued to rally and now are modestly in positive territory.
Stocks are staying in the red since that trio of economic reports hit at 10 a.m. — existing-home sales, Philly Fed and leading indicators.
A fresh batch of economic data could take investors’ minds off Yellen, her hints about rate hikes and what “around six months” means.
At 10 a.m. Eastern — in less than 10 minutes — we’ll get new readings for existing-home sales, the Philly Fed index and leading indicators.
Go here to read MarketWatch’s preview story, which features the adjacent chart.
Before the open, initial weekly jobless claims came in slightly lower (or better) than expected.
Good morning.
The action is downward again in the early going, as Fed chief Janet Yellen’s comments yesterday seem to still be weighing on investors.
One MarketWatch column calls it her “rookie mistake,” while another notes she spoke for an hour, but traders just heard three words.
SPX -0.2%
Dow -0.3%
Nasdaq -0.3%
Photo credit: Reuters