S&P 500 is up 76.9% since hitting bottom on March 9, 2009.

The DJIA gained 8.62 pts, or 0.08%, to close at 11,005.97 (its highest since September 2008), the S&P 500 rose 2.11 pts, or 0.18%, to close at 1,196.48, and the NAS tallied up a + 3.82 pts, or 0.16%, to end the session at 2,457.87.

Q-1 earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 37.1% from a year ago levels, marking the 2nd straight positive Q for earnings since Y 2007.

The Volatility Index (VIX) closed 3.9% lower on the day, though it had been down as much as 5.6% to a fresh 30 month low during the session.

Advancing Sectors: Financials (+0.5%), Utilities (+0.4%), Tech (+0.3%), Industrials (+0.3%), Energy (+0.3%), Consumer Staples (+0.1%)

Declining Sectors: Materials (-0.5%), Telecom (-0.2%), Health Care (-0.2%)

Unchanged: Consumer Discretionary

Volume and Breadth: about 7.93B/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX, and NAS, below last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65B/shrs. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 4 to 3, and on the NAS, 6 stocks rose for each 5 that fell.

Market Indexes Technical Analysis

Date Symbol Price Technical Analysis Support Resistance Apr-12-2010 QQQQ 49.07 Bullish (0.44) 48.80 49.12 Apr-12-2010 DIA 110.18 Neutral (0.20) 109.48 111.36 Apr-12-2010 SPY 119.74 Neutral (0.19) 103.56

Stocks to Watch Today

Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY), Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU), ChevronTexaco Corporation (CVX), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and US Bancorp (USB).

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Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Apr 13th, 2010and filed underLimelight, Oil, USA.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