Markets Consolidate After Fed Rally

  • March 22, 2007
  • Darren Wong

The U.S. stock markets finished the
day mixed after yesterday’s sharp Fed rally.  The Dow
finished in positive territory led by Exxon Mobil
(
XOM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Proctor and Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating).  XOM shares gained
1.6% and PG shares gained 1.4%.

Crude futures for May closed
higher for the third straight session up 3.5% to $61.69 per
barrel.  Gold futures for
April delivery rose by 0.6% to $664.20 an ounce.

Around Europe, the CAC 40 gained
1.75% to 5,598.37, Germany’s DAX rose 2.2% to 6,856.96, and the
FTSE 100 rose by 1% to 6,318.00.



The PowerRatings
Heat Maps*
from Wednesday’s close is showing widespread price action that has
historically led to weakness. 

Click here for a free trial to our PowerRatings Heat Maps,
so that you can quickly gauge overall market direction and go deeper into
individual sectors.



Stocks in
Motion

KB Home
(
KBH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Tumbles 84%; EPS
Beats Estimate; Revenue Falls 19% (full
story).  KBH shares closed lower by 1%.

Motorola
(
MOT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Trims Q1, FY07 Forecast,
Shuffles Executive Deck; Accelerates Share Buyback (full
story).  MOT shares dropped 6.6%.

General Mills
(
GIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q3 Profit Rises 9%
On Top Line Growth; Lifts FY07 EPS Outlook (full
story).  GIS shares gained nearly 1%.

Morgan Stanley
(
MS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Wins Reversal Of
$1.58 Bln Verdict Awarded To Perelman (full
story).  MS shares finished fractionally lower.

Intuit
(
INTU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Reiterates FY07
Guidance (full
story).  INTU shares fell by 8%.

For more stories as they happen, go to our
Breaking News section.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +13.62 12,461.14

NASDAQ

 -4.18 2,451.74

S&P 500

 -0.50 1,434.54

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 3,095,196,000 1,878,185,000

Advances

 1610 1520

Declines

 1609 1492

Up Volume

 1315 693

Down Volume

 1543 1059

New Highs

 218 154

New Lows

 16 33



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
CBOE Oil Index (OIX) Computer Hardware Index (HWI)
Amex Oil Index (XOI) Amex Airline Index (XAL)
Deutsche Bank Energy Index (DXE) GSTI Multimedia Networking Index (GIP)


Economic
News

Leading Indicators -0.5% vs
-0.3% consensus

Initial Claims 316K vs 325K
consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com