What Lifted Blue Chips Today
Blue-chip stocks pulled themselves
out of
negative territory on Thursday, getting a lift from Eastman Kodak
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which reaffirmed its earnings outlook, and some better-than-expected economic
data.
The June Dow Jones Industrial Average
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The June Nasdaq 100 lost 7.00 to end at 1490.50,
The June Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index
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1153.04.
Altogether, it was a lackluster snoozer
performance on Wall Street, major indexes have seen decent-sized upswings in the
past weeks, and analysts say the rally is played out for now.
Bonds were pressured by a wave of new nongovernment bond supply, continuing
optimism about the U.S. economy, and expectations that the Federal Reserve will
begin raising rates in the months ahead. The June 30 yr bond
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lost 1.34 to close at 97.81. The June 10 year note
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to close at 102.297. The June dollar
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117.800.
Crude-oil futures moved to the upside today in choppy trade, as participants
positioned themselves ahead of Friday’s meeting of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries.
April crude-oil futures
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barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April natural gas
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gained .06 to $2.925 per 1000 cubic feet, April heating oil
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edged higher 0.88 cent to 65.70 cents a gallon, while April unleaded gasoline
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OPEC is widely expected to leave output unchanged when it meets Friday in
Vienna, which is neutral to supportive for prices.
Investors are also keeping an eye on any talk of Russia, which has dragged its
feet to meet OPEC’s quotas in the past, brokers said.
Additionally, with the threat of a U.S. military attack on Iraq still looming
and product stocks declining, many feel there is a greater case to buy May
rather than sell it right now, some brokers said.
Grain futures
advanced Thursday on the Chicago Board of Trade, reflecting
investor relief that foot-and-mouth rumors of a day earlier had proven false.
After the U.S. Agriculture Department repeated that rumors of foot-and-mouth
disease in Kansas were untrue, investors bought back nearly all the corn futures
they had dumped earlier in the day May corn
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CK2 |
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Wheat for May
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May soybeans
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were mixed and pork futures were lower in trading on the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange.
Precious metals were trading mostly lower as a stronger yen reactivated selling
at the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, participants said. April gold
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on Comex was pushed down to $290.80, where it found drew some support and
climbed back to $291.20, $2.60 lower from Wednesday. May silver
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was up 1.24% or 5.75 cents $4.685 an ounce. April copper
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.45 to end at 74.50.