Monster Rally, Madoff Prison, GE Credit Surprise

Stocks surged today adding to a 3 day winning streak. The ultimate financial con artist, Bernie Madoff, was escorted to prison after pleading guilty before a Federal Judge and packed courtroom in lower Manhattan; potentially signaling the end of this negative cycle. Standard & Poors surprised traders by not downgrading General Electric’s credit rating as much as expected further fueling the monster rally. The DJIA jumped up +239.66 to 7170.06 smashing the psychological resistance at 7000, the S&P 500 advanced +54.46 to 1426.10 and the tech heavy Nasdaq surged ahead by +29.38 to 750.74.

E*TRADE
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– Did not participate in the rally after being rated sell by Citigroup. Shares fell 2.94% or 0.06 cents to 0.66 cents.

General Electric
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– Climbed 12.49% or $1.06 to $9.55/share after its credit rating was not cut to the degree expected and stating the downgrade will not affect business.

Men’s Wearhouse
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– Rallied 27.23% or $2.96 to $13.83/share after being raised to a buy by Richard Jaffe.

Microsoft
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– Fell 0.58% or 0.10 cents to $17.01/share after Morgan Stanley cut its earnings estimates.

Oil surged $4.70 to $46.71, Gold advanced $13.30 to $924.00 and the VIX fear index fell 5.57% to 41.18 as confidence returns to stocks.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+239.66 7170.06

NASDAQ

+54.46 1426.10

S&P 500

+29.38 750.74

Economic
News

Wholesale Inventories (Jan): Consensus: -1.0%, Prior: -1.4%

Crude Inventories (March 06): Consensus: NA, Prior: -757K

Treasury Budget (Feb): Consensus:-$200B, Prior: NA

Initial Claims (March 07): Consensus: 640K, Prior: 639K

Retail Sales (Feb): Consensus: -0.4%, Prior: 1.0%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Feb): Consensus: -0.2%, Prior: 0.9%

Business Inventories (Jan): Consensus: -1.1%, Prior: -1.3%

Export Prices ex-ag. (Feb): Consensus: NA, Prior: 0.0%

Import Prices ex-oil (Feb): Consensus: NA, Prior: -0.8%

Trade Balance (Jan): Consensus: -$38.2B, Prior: -$39.9B

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Mar): Consensus: 56.3, Prior: 56.3