U.S. Stocks Rise on Alcoa Bid

After moving higher at the
start of trading, the U.S. stock markets continued to hold at the
highs of the day. The strength in the markets came as traders have
gone bargain hunting following recent weakness.

Nonetheless, while the Dow
and the S&P 500 have moved firmly into positive territory, the
Nasdaq underperformed. Notable losses by some disk drive and
biotechnology stocks helped to limit the upside for the tech-heavy
Nasdaq.



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Crude for March delivery
closed up 2.2% to $59.06 a barrel as the International Energy
Agency increased its forecast for global oil consumption this
year.

After seeing some weakness
in the previous session, the price of gold regained some ground
during trading on Tuesday. Gold for April delivery closed up $1.20
at $668.50 an ounce after ending Monday’s trading down $5 an
ounce.

Our
PowerRatings
Heat Maps*
from Monday’s close has started to become more neutral after
looking bearish over the last several sessions.  While no
particular sector is showing a majority of high PowerRated stocks,
it will be interesting to see if we continue seeing upside
momentum after the last week’s selloff.

Click here
for a free trial to our PowerRatings Heat Maps.


Stocks in
Motion

BHP Billiton
(
BHP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
, Rio Tinto
(
RTP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

Mulling $40 Bln Alcoa
(
AA |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Takeover – Reports; Stock Up On Takeover
Speculation (full
story
).  AA shares move higher by 6.3%, BHP shares moved up 2.3%, and
RTP shares gained 3%.

Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Says HIV Drug Maraviroc To
Receive Accelerated Regulatory Reviews In U.S., Europe (full
story
).  PFE shares rose 0.7%.

Marsh & McLennan
(
MMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q4 Profit Rises
More Than 6-fold On 9% Revenue Growth, Prior Year Items (full
story
).  MMC shares fell 1.6%.

KB Home
(
KBH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Swings To A Loss In Q4 On
Charges, Weak Housing Demand; Revenue Up 13% On Growth In Revenue From
Homebuilding Operations (full
story
). KBH shares rose nearly 3%.

Market Share Gains, Top Line Growth Lift Nasdaq
(
NDAQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q4 Profit Up, Adj. EPS Matches Estimate (full
story
).  NDAQ shares dropped 11.5%.

Priceline.com
(
PCLN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
Q4 Profit More Than
Triples, Pro Forma EPS Tops Consensus, Revenue Up 27.5%; Sees Year-over-year
Increase In Q1 Revenue Of 15% (full
story
).  PCLN shares gained 10%.

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

Market Snapshot

Dow

+102.30 12,654.85

NASDAQ

+9.50 2,459.88

S&P 500

+10.89 1,444.26

 

NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

2,531,419,000 1,805,638,000

Advances

2316 1722

Declines

956 1281

Up Volume

1747 1083

Down Volume

547 610

New Highs

181 134

New Lows

26 49



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors

Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI) Nasdaq Telecommunications  Index (IXTCX)
Amex Oil Index (XOI) Amex Disk Drive Index (DDX)
Dow Jones Equity REIT Index (DJR) Nasdaq Other Finance Index (OFINX)


Economic
News

Trade Balance
-$61.2 bln vs -$59.5 bln consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com