US Stocks were flat to mixed in trading Wednesday

The DJIA closed + 7.86 pts, or 0.07%, at 11,124.92, the S&P 500 lost 1.23 pts, or 0.10%, to close at 1,205.94, and the NAS tallied up + 4.30 pts, or 0.17%, to end the session at 2,504.61.

Among gainers, Morgan Stanley shares rose 4.04% to US$31.68 after posting a stronger than expected profit on strong fixed income trading. The KBW Banks index rose 0.9%. Regional banks reporting Wednesday included KeyCorp which rose 4.2% to US$8.94/shr after the Midwestern bank posted a smaller-than-expected Q-1 loss, Huntington Bancshares led regional banks 1.7% higher, and Wells Fargo that disappointed on top line results. The S&P regional banks index gained 1.7%.

Apple shares advanced 6% to US$259.22, a all time closing high, on forecasts of record iPhone sales and forecast strong revenue growth going forward. During the session Apple hit an all-time intra-day high of US$260.25/shr. EH LTN has called its Apple shares target at $300.00 in the mid-term.

Healthcare stocks slid after both Abbott Labs, and Gilead Sciences Inc cut profits citing the impact of costs from US healthcare reform in their outlooks. The two represented a setback in an otherwise upbeat earnings season.  Shares of Gilead sank 10% to US$40.76,and Abbott lost 2.4% to US$51.78/shr. After the Bell, players received more disappointing outlooks that may pressure the US market today as Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. gave a weak forecast for the current quarter and full year, sending its stock down 6% to $39.95 in after-hours trading. EBay Inc., the big Internet auctioneer and retailer, also forecast shy of Wall Street’s expectations, sending it South 6.4% to US$24.64/shr after the Bell.

The S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index gained 0.4% and Small-caps in the Russell 2000 settled 0.6% higher.

Commodities closed with a collective gain of 0.4%: measured by the CRB Commodity Index. Its strength was on Gold’s 0.8% gain to US$1148.80 oz, and Silver’s 1.4% rise to US$18.08 oz in the face of the “Greenback’s” 0.2% increase against a basket of foreign currencies. Crude Oil price failed to sustain a rebound that followed a sell off induced by a surprise build in weekly Crude Oil inventories. It settled with a 0.2% loss at US$83.68 bbl in the USA.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+0.9%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.6%), Tech (+0.4%), Utilities (+0.2%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)

Declining Sectors: Health Care (-1.8%), Telecom (-0.9%), Financial (-0.5%), Energy (-0.2%), Materials   (-0.1%)

Volume and Breadth: About 10.01B/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX and NAS, above last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65B/shrs. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 4 to 3, and on the NAS about 9 stocks rose for each 8 that fell.

US Market Indexes Technical Analysis

Major World Markets

Stocks to Watch Today

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), The Boeing Company (BA), Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG), 3M Company (MMM).

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Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Apr 22nd, 2010and filed underOil.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