S&P Closes at 7-Year Highs

  • May 3, 2007
  • Darren Wong

The S&P 500 index closed above the 1,500 level for
the first time since September of 2000.  Top gainers in the
index included Unum Group
(
UNM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and International
Flavors & Fragrances
(
IFF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) with gains of 9.8% and 8%.

June crude futures closed down
0.8% to $63.19 a barrel. 
June gold futures added 1.4% to $684.40 an ounce.

Around Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 led
the majors with a gain of 0.8% to 6,537.80, Germany’s DAX Index
added 0.3% to 7,476.69, and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.24% to
6,004.28.

Today‘s

PowerRatings Heat Map is neutral across most sectors, suggesting possible
consolidation over the next few sessions.  The sector with the highest amount of high
and low PowerRatings stocks is the Energy sector.  It will be interesting
to see which way the sector moves in today’s session.


Click here to see our new list of indicators that includes

Gaps Down 5% or More,

2-Period RSI Below 2,

Stocks Up 10% or More.  Historically proven edges make
these a great place to start making a watch list. 


Stocks in
Motion

GM
(
GM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Disappoints Market With Poor Q1 Numbers, North
American Unit Provides Solace (full
story).  GM shares lost 5.4%.

International
Paper
(
IP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Posts Q1 Profit On Better Prices, Asset Sales; Revenue
Declines On Lower Forestland Sales (full
story).  IP shares fell 0.5%.

MGM MIRAGE
(
MGM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Rises 17%, EPS Misses
Consensus, Revenue Up 9% (full
story).  MGM shares lost 4.3%.

Ipsco
(
IPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Agrees To Be Acquired By SSAB For
US$7.7 Bln Cash (full
story).  IPS shares jumped 6%.

Las Vegas Sands
(
LVS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Declines On Higher
Expenses (full
story).  LVS shares fell 5%.

JDSU
(
JDSU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Posts Q3 Loss; EPS Misses Estimate,
Ex-items; Guides Q4 Revenue Below Consensus (full
story).  JDSU shares dropped 13.9%.

Dow Jones
(
DJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Take No Action On News Corp
(
NWS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Bid (full
story).  DJ shares lost 0.3%, NWS shares closed fractionally lower.

Valero
(
VLO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) To Sell Ohio Refinery To Husky For
$1.9 Bln (full
story).  VLO shares gained 0.6%.

Restructuring Charges Drag Down Symantec
(
SYMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4
Profit, Adj. Profit Declines Despite Revenue Growth, Yet Tops Estimate, Sets Q1,
FY08 Target (full
story).  SYMC shares rose 4.7%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +29.50 13,241.38

NASDAQ

 +7.62 2,565.46

S&P 500

 +6.47 1,502.39

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,841,626,000 2,125,657,000

Advances

 1828 1525

Declines

 1374 1488

Up Volume

 1672 1239

Down Volume

 951 797

New Highs

 249 164

New Lows

 14 47


   



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
CBOE Internet Index (INX) Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors Index (HMO)
Amex Disk Drive Index (DDX) S&P Retail Index (RLX)
North American Telecom Index (XTC) Morgan Stanley Healthcare Providers Index (RXH)


Economic
News

Productivity-prelim
+1.7% vs +0.8%, prior +1.6%

Initial Claims 305K vs
325K; prior week of 321K revised to 326K

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com