Stocks Battle Back, VIX Sinks, Unemployment Soars

Stocks ended higher on the final trading day of the week after battling back from negative territory for most of the session. The tightest trading range of 2009 resulted in the fourth straight day of VIX contraction as stock option prices stagnate. Unemployment figures indicated the highest number since 1983, however the major indexes paid no mind to this troubling figure closing up on the day. The DJIA advanced +39.51 to 8017.59, the Nasdaq pushed ahead by +19.24 to 1621.87, and the S&P 500 climbed +8.12 to 842.50.

Akamai Tech
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– The biggest loser in the S&P 500 dropping 7.47% or $1.61 to $19.93/share after suffering a Citigroup downgrade.

CarMax
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– The auto retailer was cut to underperform by Wachovia falling 8.01% or $1.06 to $12.17/share.

Intercontinental Exchange
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– Upgraded to a buy at Goldman resulted in shares climbing 9.04% or $7.07 to $85.27.

Microsoft
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– Dropped the most in the DJIA after Bank of America cut its earning estimates. Shares dipped 2.80% or 0.54 cents to $18.75.

Oil dropped 0.13 cents to $52.51, Gold continued to plummet, losing another $11.60 to $897.30 and the fear index VIX had its 4th straight losing day dropping 5.57% to 39.70.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

+39.51 8017.59

NASDAQ

+19.24 1621.87

S&P 500

+8.12 842.50

Economic
News

Consumer Confidence (Mar): Consensus: 27.0, Prior: 25.0

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index (Jan): Consensus: -18.5%, Prior: -18.55%

Chicago PMI (Mar): Consensus: 34.7, Prior: 34.2

ADP Employment Change (Mar): Consensus: -648K, Prior: -697K

Construction Spending (Feb): Consensus: -1.6%, Prior: -3.3%

ISM Index (Mar): Consensus: 36.0, Prior: 35.8

Pending Home Sales (Feb): Consensus: -2.0%, Prior: -7.7%

Crude Inventories (03/27): Consensus: NA, Prior: +3300K

Auto Sales (Mar): Consensus: NA, Prior: 2.9M

Truck Sales (Mar): Consensus: NA, Prior: 3.5M

Initial Claims (03/28): Consensus: 653K, Prior: NA

Factory Orders (Feb): Consensus: -0.3%, Prior: -1.9%

Average Workweek (Mar): Consensus: 33.3, Prior: 33.3

Hourly Earnings (Mar): Consensus: 0.2%, Prior: 0.2%

Nonfarm Payrolls (Mar): Consensus: -656K, Prior: -651K

Unemployment Rate (Mar): Consensus: 8.5%, Prior: 8.1%

ISM Services (Mar): Consensus: 42.0, Prior: 41.6