Stocks Overcome Early Sell Off

Stocks showed modest gains
during the early afternoon on Tuesday. There was a sell off at the
outset of the session, as Wall Street continued to show caution at
the start of this week’s holiday-shortened trading. A rebound
began about half hour into the day, however, and upward momentum
lasted into the close.

S&P 500 leaders today include
Walmart

(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and Electronic Arts
(
ERTS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, both
of which closed higher by 3.5%.

European markets moved off 6-year highs as
disappointing earnings and a sell off in energy related shares
moved markets lower.  France’s CAC 40 and Britain’s FTSE
moved lower by 0.5%, while Germany’s DAX index lost 0.1%. 

Crude for March delivery has closed
lower by 2.2% to $58.07 a barrel as warmer weather is slowing
heating-fuel usage.  Crude prices are down 4.5%
year-over-year.  Gold for April delivery fell 1.8% to $661 an
ounce.

Our

Daily Market Bias
page has been updated with new indicators to
determine if there is a strong bias for the market to move higher
(or lower) the following day.  These tables can help you to
pinpoint market conditions that have historically led to
significant up or down moves over the next 1 to 5 days. 

Click here
for more information on our Daily Market Bias
indicators.



Stocks in
Motion

Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q4 Profit Up 9.7% On
Strong Top Line Growth, 1.6% Rise In Comps.; Guides Q1, FY08 (full
story
).  WMT shares rose by 3.5%
.

XM
(
XMSR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, Sirius
(
SIRI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

Agree To Merge (full
story
).  XMSR shares jumped 10%, while SIRI shares rose by nearly 6%.

Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q4 Profit Falls 28%; Adj.
EPS Matches Estimate; Sales Up 4% (full
story
).  HD shares finish fractionally lower.

Boyd Gaming
(
BYD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q4 Profit More Than Doubles On Insurance Gain,
Lower Costs; Revenue Drops 4.2% (full
story
).  BYD shares gained 6.7%.

Vulcan Materials
(
VMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
To Acquire
Florida Rock

(
VMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
In $4.6 Bln Cash And Stock Transaction (full
story
).  VMC shares lost 0.6%, while FRK shares jump 42%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

+19.07 12,786.64

NASDAQ

+16.73 2,513.04

S&P 500

+4.14 1,459.68

 

NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

2,273,203,000 2,147,039,000

Advances

2019 1975

Declines

1270 1098

Up Volume

1255 1571

Down Volume

809 482

New Highs

386 252

New Lows

17 37



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors

Nasdaq Transportation Index (TRANX) Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI)
GSTI Internet
Index (GIN)
CBOE Oil Index (OIX)
GSTI Software Index (GSO) Deutsche Bank Energy Index (DXE)


Economic
News

No economic reports released
today.

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com