Health Bill Passes, Stocks Climb, Greece Still Worried

Obama’s sweeping health care reform measures were passed by the house. Stocks reacted by rallying, after an early morning sell off, despite dire warnings from the bill’s critics. Shares closed higher on the day being led by health care and technology stocks. International worries from Greece and India muted an otherwise bullish first day of the week. The DJIA advanced +43.91 to 10785.89, the Nasdaq climbed +20.99 to 2395.40 and the S&P 500 added +5.91 to 1165.81.

^THC^: Rallied 9.04% or 52 cents to $6.27/share on the passage of Obama’s health care bill by the House.

^BA^: Soared higher by 1.68% or $1.19 to $71.91/share after an upgrade at Oppenheimer & Co.

^BPOP^: A downgrade sent the Puerto Rican bank lower by 3.30% or 9 cents to $2.64.

^ALV^: The world’s largest maker of auto seat belts and airbags climbed 5.96% or $2.92 to $51.94/share after increasing its first quarter forecasts.

Oil climbed 57 cents to $81.25, gold gave back $6.30 to $1101.30 and the VIX dropped 0.59% to 16.87.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

+43.91 10,785.89

NASDAQ

+20.99 2,395.40

S&P 500

+5.91 1,165.81
Economic
News

Existing Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: 5.00M, Prior: 5.05M

FHFA Home Price Index (Jan): Consensus: -0.9%, Prior: -1.6%

Durable Orders (Feb): Consensus: 0.5%, Prior: 2.6%

Durable Orders ex Auto (Feb): Consensus: 0.5%, Prior: -1.0%

New Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: 315K, Prior: 309K

Crude Inventories (03/20): Consensus: NA, Prior: 1.01M

Continuing Claims (03/13): Consensus: 4560K, Prior: 4579K

Initial Claims (03/20): Consensus: 450K, Prior: 457K

GDP – Third Estimate (Q4): Consensus: 5.9%, Prior: 5.9%

GDP Deflator – Third Estimate(Q4): Consensus: 0.4%, Prior: 0.4%

Michigan Sentiment – Final (Mar): Consensus: 73.0, Prior: 72.5