Nasdaq Guns It
Stocks shrugged off most of their recent gloom Thursday and powered their
way skyward to finish near their highs of the day. Leading the parade was the
Nasdaq with a massive 8.9% gain.
The broad-based rally also included the blue chips, as the Dow soared 4.2%,
and the S&P 500 jumped 4.3%.
What bulls would have preferred to see, however, would have been a bigger
surge in volume. Nasdaq volume totaled just 2.2 billion shares, and NYSE
volume was 1.3 billion shares.
Since stocks have broken down so often following many of these types of
rallies, traders remain cautiously optimistic about the market’s near-term
prospects.
“The big question mark, of course, is whether or not this is is yet
another in a long line of sucker rallies. I really don’t think it is, but that
doesn’t mean the market can’t go down tomorrow. But I think this rally
reflects genuine hope and genuine thought that perhaps stocks have been
oversold,” said Charles Payne, President, WallStreetStrategies.com.
“But I think it’s a good thing that the market still has the ability
to rally in this type of way. Just the fact we are still able to find these
types of buyers bodes very well for the future because eventually there will
be a real rally,” he added.
According to preliminary numbers, the Nasdaq gained 146.34 to 1785.14, the
Dow jumped 402.63 to 9918.05, and the S&P 500 rose 48.22 to 1151.47.
Leading sectors were Internets
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up 13%, and broker/dealers
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Few sectors were negative, but the only notable one was gold and silver
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which fell 0.2%.
Big percentage tech winners were BEA Systems
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up 27%, and Mercury Interactive
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Powering the Dow were Intel
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up 12%, Microsoft
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up 7%.
Broker/dealers lighting up the sky were Goldman Sachs
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Merrill Lynch
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In the Internets, eBay
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PowerRating) posted a solid gain of 4 3/8 or 14% to
34 3/4 on heavier-than-average volume.
Looking ahead, the March jobless report will be released at 8:30 AM ET on
Friday, and it may hold the key as to the intermediate-term direction of this
market. Analysts expect the unemployment level to rise to 4.3% from its
current 4.2%.