Stocks Rally on Fed Rate Cut Expectations

The markets rallied today, despite a shaky global session and a down day to
end the week last Friday. Traders chose to ignore somewhat negative corporate
news and economic data out today, and focused on an expected Fed rate cut to
come later this week.

McDonald’s
(
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fell 6.25% after reporting flat same-store sales
last month, but a Q4 profit of $1.27 billion (full
story
).

CME Group
(
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announced the company was in talks to purchase
Nymex

(
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, for possible more than $11 billion (full
story
).

Alliance Data
(
ADS |
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fell 35.2% today, after the company announced
that a proposed buy-out by Blackstone
(
BX |
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would not meet conditions
met by Federal regulators, thereby nixing the deal (full
story
).

Verizon
(
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rallied nearly 1% today; VZ reported a 3.9% increase
in Q4 earnings and a 2 million mobile-customer increase (full
story
).

Gold rallied nearly 2% to fresh all-time record highs, as the dollar fell
against the euro today on U.S. economic weakness. Crude oil futures rallied 0.4%
on expectations for a U.S. rate cut later this week.

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Market Snapshot

Dow


176.72
12383.89

NASDAQ

23.71 2349.91

S&P 500


23.30
1353.91

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change
Consumer
Electronics
+5.33%

Restaurants

-3.76%

Residential Construction

+5.29%
Internet

-2.96%

Nonmetallic Mineral Mining

+4.43%
Silver
-1.63%

Economic
News


U.S. new home sales fell unexpectedly in December, down 4.7%.