Home Sales Skyrocket, Monster Stock Rally, Obama Confident

Stocks launched into a monster rally today after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner revealed his trillion dollar plan to remove toxic assets from bank balance sheets without resorting to outright federal ownership. This news sent financials higher with the broader market following on housing sales increasing the most in 6 years. The optimistic news was capped by President Obama reiterating his confidence in the preparation. The DJIA soared +497.48 to 7775.86 directly below the critical resistance level of 7777, the Nasdaq advanced an astounding +98.50 to 1555.77 and the broad based S&P 500 surged +54.38 to 822.92.

Bank of America
(
BAC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
– Led the DJIA higher on the Geithner plan soaring 24.56% or $1.54 to $7.73/share.

Petro-Canada
(
PCZ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
– Suncor announced plans to buy out the world’s second largest oil-sands producer sending shares rocketing up 21.99% or $5.28 to $29.49/share.

Tiffany
(
TIF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
– The luxury jeweler beat analysts profit and sales estimates sending shares up 15.52% or $3.14 to $23.37.

H&R Block
(
HRB |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
– Fell despite the great day due to falling tax return preparation numbers. Shares slipped 9.15% or $1.75 to $17.38/share.

Oil climbed $1.73 to $53.87, Gold fell $3.70 to $952.50 and the fear index VIX slipped 5.809% to 43.23.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+497.48 7775.86

NASDAQ

+98.50 1555.77

S&P 500

+54.38 822.92

Economic
News

Existing Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: 4.45M, Prior: 4.49M

Durable Goods Orders (Feb): Consensus: -2.4%, Prior: -5.2%

Durables, Ex-Transportation (Feb): Consensus: -2.0%, Prior: -2.5%

New Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: 300K, Prior: 309K

Crude Inventories (March 20): Consensus: NA, Prior: +1942K

Initial Claims (March 21): Consensus: 650K, Prior: NA

Q4 GDP – Final (Q4): Consensus: -6.6%, Prior: -6.2%

GDP Price Index (Q4): Consensus: 0.5%, Prior: 0.5%

Personal Income (Feb): Consensus: -0.1%, Prior: 0.4%

Personal Spending (Feb): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.6%

Mich Sentiment-Rev (March): Consensus: 56.0, Prior: NA