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Signs that the economy continues to cool helped keep stocks in a positive mood Thursday, allowing the Nasdaq to gain 1.1%, the Dow to add 0.3%, and the S&P 500 to rise 0.2%.
Durable goods orders fell 12.4% in July, which was much greater than the 7.7% drop that analysts had expected, and that reinforced the view that the Fed may be finished with rate hikes for a while.
Volume was about on par with Wednesday's fairly light levels, with 1.5 billion shares trading on the Nasdaq and 816 million shares trading on the NYSE. Analysts noted that the market remains a stock pickers' market, and that it also remains in pretty decent shape.
"I'm seeing biotechs and selective technologies being bought. With the Fed's non-action this week and the 10-year Treasury at at least a one-year low, it bodes well for the market right now," said Arnie Owen, Managing Director of Equities, Cruttenden Roth.
"If you remember back to the beginning of the year, I said that every year gets tougher, and this year the real challenge is going to be stock picking as opposed to just buying anything in a sector. As we go along, and as the bull run gets older, selectivity becomes the key," he added.
According to preliminary numbers, the Nasdaq rose 42.29 to 4053.30, the Dow edged up 38.09 to 11,182.74, and the S&P 500 gained 2.34 to 1508.31.
Top sectors included biotechs ($BTK.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 6.8%, Internets ($GIN.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 2.0%, and forest and paper products ($FPP.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 1.8%.
On the downside were insurance ($IUX.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), down 1.2%, oil services ($IUX.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), down 1.7%, and integrated oils ($XOI.X | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), down 2.7%.
In the red-hot biotech sector, big gains were had by COR Therapeutics (CORR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 20%, Protein Design Labs (PDLI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 10%, Immune Response (IMNR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 9.6%, and Chiron (CHIR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 7.4%.
In the genomic arena, winners included Human Genome Sciences (HGSI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 20 13/16 to 158 7/8, Celera Genomics (CRA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 11 15/16 to 94 5/8, and Abgenix (ABGX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 8 1/8 to 66 5/8.
Hitting all-time highs were big-cap leaders like General Electric (GE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 1 1/16 to 59, Sun Microsystems (SUNW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 1 1/16 to 127 3/4, and Ciena (CIEN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), up 6 13/16 to 201 1/16.
Looking to Friday, the second quarter GDP will be released at 8:30 AM ET, and Street estimates look for a rate of 5.4%. Also out at 10:00 AM ET are the July existing home sales, and analysts look for a figure of 5.13 million.
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