Among gainers in the mining sector, Terex Corp (NYSE:TEX) rose 2.9% to 25.13 and Joy Global Inc (NASDAQ:JOYG) rose 7.5% at 77.77.

The energy and materials sectors, sensitive to commodity prices and weaken when the USD rises, led the way down as the Treasury Bond market sell off picked up steam in the afternoon. The S&P materials sector .GSPM lost 0.9%.

Mergers and Acquisitions kept the market afloat for most of the day after Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT) agreed to buy mining equipment maker Bucyrus International Inc (NASDAQ:BUCY) for US$7.6B and data storage equipment maker EMC Corp (NYSE:EMC) agreed to buy rival Isilon Systems Inc (NASDAQ:ISLN) for US$2.25B

Bucyrus rose 29% to 89.80, and Caterpillar rose 1% to 81.82 helping the Dow close in the Green.

Isilon was among the most active stocks on NAS, rising 28.5% to 33.77, while EMC slipped 1.2% to 21.45.

Analysts said they expect M&A deals down the line will see buyers focusing on gaining access to international markets, a potential driver of growth for companies as the US economy recovers slowly.

Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares fell 4.1% to 158.90 on concerns that the decision of rivals, including Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), to offer free shipping could challenge the online retailer’s results.

Charts show Amazon’s stock is technically weak in the short term, with the daily moving average convergence-divergence at a ‘sell’ since late October, except for a 1 day blip last week. Momentum turned negative Friday when it also accumulated a two-day drop of 4.4%.

And after Amazon’s close on Friday below its 20 Day Moving Average, a 1st for the stock since October 11, the Bollinger bands chart shows a near-term target of 158.65, more than 4% below last Friday’s close.

In economic news, retail sales posted their largest gain in 7 months in October, lifted by purchases of motor vehicles and building materials. Separately, a gauge of manufacturing in New York state fell in November to its lowest level since April 2009.

Soft commodities and grains led the way higher for the CRB Commodities Index. Both groups posted +1.9% gainers.

March Corn rallied for 3.8% to settle at 5.69 per bushel. March Sugar rebounded from last week’s sizeable sell off as it gained 3.1% to close at 0.2703 per pound.

Dec Gold ended higher at 1368.70 oz, and Dec Silver closed just above the flat line at 25.95 oz.

Dec Crude Oil closed lower by 0.02% to 84.85 bbl, in what was a very mundane start to the week. Dec Nat Gas gained 1.3% to 3.84 per MMBtu. It bounced of its intra-day lows, at 3.71, to retrace its morning sell off and finish in positive territory, end its recent 3 session sell off.

Red’s Bull Trader Alert: The S&P 500 held above its 20 Day Moving Average, now near 1,196 a Key support level.If the S&P 500 holds above its 20 Day Moving Average in here it could find itself in a tight range as it faces strong resistance around the 1,228 level. The Bollinger bands chart indicates the near-term target at 1,230, in the area of the 61.8% fibo retracement of the slide from the Y 2007 historic highs to the 12 yr lows of March 9, 2009.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+0.4%), Telecom (+0.3%), Utilities (+0.3%), Industrials (+0.2%)

Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.9%), Energy (-0.5%), Tech (-0.4%), Consumer Discretionary (-0.3%), Health Care (-0.2%), Consumer Staples (-0.1%)

Volume and Breadth: about 6.71B/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX and NAS, well below last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65B/shrs. Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,577 to 1,386, and on the NAS, advancers beat decliners by 1,420 to 1,195.

US Major Market Indexes Technical Analysis

Date	Symbol	Price	Technical Analysis	Support	Resistance
Nov-15-2010	QQQQ	52.31	Bullish (0.28)	49.07	53.82
Nov-15-2010	DIA	112.25	Bullish (0.37)	111.95	114.64
Nov-15-2010	SPY	120.03	Bullish (0.40)	119.79	120.60

Snap Shot of Major World Markets

Nikkei	9805.52	-21.99	-0.22%
TOPIX	847.57	-3.99	-0.47%
Hang Seng	23999.80	-27.35	-0.11%
S&P/ASX 200	4680.80	-7.20	-0.15%
Shanghai	2996.80	-17.61	-0.58%
DJIA	11202.00	+9.39	+0.08%
S&P 500	1197.75	-1.46	-0.12%
NAS	2513.82	-4.39	-0.17%
S&P/TSX	12735.40	-13.83	-0.11%
Mexico Bolsa	36057.40	-247.15	-0.68%
Brazil Bovespa	70367.10	-828.01	-1.16%

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Nov 16th, 2010and filed underAnalysis, Economics, Economy, Equities, Exclusive, In Depth, Latest News, Markets, News & Events, Special Reports, Stocks, US Companies, USA, World News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site