Stocks Surge as Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged

  • March 21, 2007
  • Darren Wong

Markets rallied after the Fed
announced that they will hold interest rates steady and may be
moving closer to cutting rates.  The Nasdaq gained 2%, the
S&P rose 1.7%, and the Dow climbed 1.3%.

Crude futures for May climbed
0.7% to $59.66 as gasoline inventories fell for the sixth straight
week.  Gold futures are
also moved higher finishing the day up 0.2% to $660.00 an ounce.

Around Europe, the U.K.’s
FTSE 100 index climbed 0.59% to 6,256.80 and Germany’s DAX index
rose 0.18% to 6,712.06, while France’s CAC 40 index fell 0.02% to
5,502.18.




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Stocks in
Motion

Morgan Stanley
(
MS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Surges 70%;
EPS From Cont. Ops Tops Street View; Revenue Rises 29% (full
story).  MS shares jumped nearly 7%.

Fremont General
(
FMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Reveals Deals To
Sell $4 Bln Of Sub-prime Residential Loans; Sees Pre-tax Loss Of $140 Mln (full
story).  FMT shares gained 16%.

Oracle
(
ORCL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q3 Earnings Rise, Top
Estimate (full
story).  ORCL shares rose by 3.5%.

Adobe Systems
(
ADBE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Up
37%, Non-GAAP EPS Declines 6% But Still Tops Consensus By A Penny (full
story).  ADBE shares jumped nearly 6%.

FedEx
(
FDX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q3 Profit Drops 2% On
Higher Expenses; Top Line Rises 7%; EPS Tops Consensus; Trims Q4 Earnings
Forecasts; Tightens FY07 Outlook (full
story).  FDX shares moved lower by 1%.

JetBlue Airways
(
JBLU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Cuts FY07
Operating Margin View (full
story).  JBLU shares rose by 2%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +159.42 12,447.52

NASDAQ

 +47.71 2,455.92

S&P 500

 +24.10 1,435.04

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 3,166,554,000 2,156,125,000

Advances

 2666 2238

Declines

 596 784

Up Volume

 2758 1816

Down Volume

 245 267

New Highs

 242 133

New Lows

 19 50



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
Amex Airline Index (XAL) GSTI Multimedia Networking Index (GIP)
Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index (XBD) Morgan Stanley Healthcare Providers Index (RXH)
S&P Banking Index (BIX) S&P Chemicals Index (CEX)


Economic
News

FOMC voted unanimously for
unchanged federal funds rate

The EIA reports that
crude inventories rose by 3924K barrels, distillates showed a draw of 1500K,
and gasoline inventories dropped by 2000K barrels.

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com