The Jury Is Still Out…
It was a positive week for the markets,
but the jury is still out on whether we are rallying up from the bottoms of this
“Big Bad Bear Market.”
Click
here for Mark Boucher’s comments on the markets. US stocks rose, sending the Standard &
Poor’s 500 Index
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to their largest weekly gains in more than a year, as Microsoft
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boosted forecasts for sales and profits.
Traders and investors said the rally that lifted the benchmarks 14% from
five-year lows set last week has buoyed investor confidence. More than 60% of the S&P 500 companies to report quarterly results have beaten
analysts’ estimates, according to Thomson First Call.
The Dec. S&P 500 futures
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trading this morning, then found the intraday low and rallied from there. The
SPZ2 closed at 883.20 up 4.29. The SPZ2 closed above key support at 880. The
Dec. Nasdaq 100 futures
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17 or 1.80%.
Despite the positive moves in equities, the
Treasury’s ended on a positive note. The
Dec. 30-year Treasury bond
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at 108.68 up 2.03 up 1.90%. The Dec. 10-year note
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112 support line, before closing at 112.68 up .12.
In the energies, energy companies
operating in the Gulf of Mexico lost 14.4 million barrels of crude-oil
production and 88.9 billion cubic feet of natural-gas output because of
Hurricane Lili and Tropical Storm Isidore, the Interior Department said. Lili
was more intense and caused most of the production shutdowns, the department’s
Minerals Management Service said in a report covering the period from Sept. 23
to Oct. 18. The Gulf accounts for one quarter of US oil and gas output. The news
did not affect the energies today.
Nov. crude oil
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$29.60 a barrel, just below the $30 a barrel mark. Nov. heating oil
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gasoline
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gas
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At the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT)
where grains and beans are traded, Dec wheat
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a bushel up 7 cents or 1.72%. Dec. corn
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end at $2.54 1/4 a bushel. Nov. soybeans
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a bushel.
In the metals, Dec. gold
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$313.30 a troy ounce. While Dec silver
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rally of its own, gaining 1.50 cents to $4.36 an ounce. Dec copper
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