Quadruple Witching week, a time in the US market when 4 different types of options and futures contracts expire today and Friday. IMO this week and the first 3 days of next is a time for professional traders only.
Note: Tuesday, the S&P 500 climbed above the 1,150 Key resistance level setting the mark as the new Key support level. Investors expect the S&P 500 to rise 10% during Y 2010, according to a quarterly Reuters poll published Wednesday.

The DJIA added  47.69 pts, or 0.45%, to close at 10,733.67, the S&P 500 gained 6.75 pts, or 0.58%, to close at 1,166.21, and the NAS advanced 11.08 pts, or 0.47%, to  end the session at 2,389.09.

April Crude Oil ran up to new session highs of US$83.09 bbl on weakness in the USD index, and by the end of Wednesday’s session, Crude Oil closed 1.5% higher at US$82.93 bbl.  Gold closed 0.2% higher at US$1124.80oz, and Silver closed 0.6% higher at $17.455.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+1.1%), Energy (+1.1%), Materials (+0.7%), Telecom (+0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.5%), Consumer Staples (+0.5%), Tech (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.4%), Industrials (+0.4%), Health Care (+0.1%) Declining Sectors: (None)

Volume and Breadth: About 8.64B/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX and the NAS, below last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65B/shrs. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 7 to 3, and on the NAS, 3 stocks rose for each 2 that fell.

Stocks to Watch Today

Alcoa, Inc. (AA),   Ford Motor Company (F), International Paper Co. (IP), and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

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Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Mar 18th, 2010and filed underLimelight, Stocks.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