A potent rally
News of a
barely-perceptible wage increase in November highlighted a friendly
November jobs report, igniting a potent U.S. stock rally
Friday.Â
The move was powerful enough to relegate
the Nasdaq’s Monday-Tuesday pullback to the dustbin: The Comp vaulted to a
record.Â
“I’ve never experienced anything like
this frenzy in my career,” exclaimed TradingMarkets.com’s Jeff Cooper. “Words
are insufficient to describe the sheer power of momentum in
technology.”
Despite another de rigeur bolt by
the techs, the real story lurking beneath the surface of the popular averages
was the lush advance in the financials. The sector had been under pressure over
the past two weeks as the long bond yield ramped up to 6.341% from 5.980%.
Brokers and banks did best, followed by the insurers.
NYSE volume, at 995 million, was active.
On the Nasdaq, the 1.51 billion shares turned over was one of the heaviest paces ever.
Market bears were quick to point to
breadth. At 18 to 13, the NYSE a-d line was nowhere near a Dow up 247 points. So
what else is new? crowed the bulls.
In
Webville, top-tier names were mixed. eBay showed some of the
best action, up 7%…Network Solutions did even better, clearing a
two-week congestion area as volume swelled 84% above its norm. It was the most
active day for NSOL in five weeks…
Among bellwether
techs, Applied Materials enjoyed its third solid gain in a row
on above-average volume. It’s just 3 points from a record…Cisco did
locate virgin territory, up 2 1/16 on volume about 20% above normal…EMC also saw volume grow 20% above its average. The data storage expert’s stock had surged to a record Thursday — the first stocks that snap back into record ground following a market pullback are usually the leaders on the ensuing market advance…Gateway was a sore spot, down 5% on volume 133% above the usual…Hewlett exploded out of a rising wedge formation, up 7%…