Wall Street closed flat on Friday

On the Day: The DJIA added 12.85 pts, or 0.12%, to close at 10,624.69, the S&P 500 lost ¼ pt, or 0.02%, to close at 1,149.99, and the NAS tallied up a minus 0.80 pt, or 0.03% to end the session at 2,367.66.

On the Week: The Major Indexes closed higher for the 2nd week running, the DJIA gained 0.55%, the S&P 500 added 1% and the leading NAS posted a + 1.78%

The S&P 500 was not able to build on Thursday’s gainer that pushed it to a 17 month high.

February retail sales rose after forecasts had called for a decline and a DJ index of retailer stocks gained 0.5 %. Macy’s Inc rose 3.3% to US$21.75/shr.

US Bank shares lost some momentum after dominated the week’s action: Citigroup Inc. fell 5% to US$3.97/shr on Friday, but was up 13.4% on the week, its best showing since last August. Friday, the KBW bank index .BKX dropped 0.9%.

Health insurers’ stocks fell as a group, with the Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index .HMO down 1.4%, its largest daily percentage drop in 3 weeks.

Caterpillar Inc added 2.5% to US$60.36/shr and was the DJIA’s top points gainer a day after the heavy equipment maker said it could triple its current US output of hydraulic excavators.

The US Commerce Department said business inventories were unchanged in January, against a forecast for a 0.2% rise.

Commodities saw mixed interest session Friday as the CRB Commodity Index finished flat. However, Crude Oil prices fell 1.1% to US$81.24 bbl. Crude Oil prices had topped US$83 bbl in the early going as news circulated that the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects Crude Oil demand to rise this year.

The flat finish among both commodities and stocks marked quiet close to the week’s trade, though action in previous sessions combined for a considerable weekly move. The CRB Commodity Index fell 1.3% on the week, and stocks closed with a 1.0% gain on the week.

Advancing Sectors: Industrials (+0.7%), Materials (+0.6%), Consumer Discretionary (+0.2%), Tech (+0.1%)

Declining Sectors: Utilities (-0.7%), Financials (-0.4%), Health Care (-0.4%); Telecom (-0.2%), Energy (-0.1%)

Unchanged: Consumer Staples

Volume and Breadth: about 8.3B/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX and NAS, below last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65 b/shrs. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by about 5 to 4, and on the NAS about 6 stocks fell for each 5 that rose.

Red on Crude Oil and Gold…

Nymex Crude Oil (CL)

The Northside moment is slowing in Crude Oil, but a continued rise is likely with 80.16 the minor support in here.

The current rally from 69.50 looks to extend for a retest the 83.95 high. But a break of 80.16 will indicate that a short term top is in place now, and deeper pull back should be seen to 38.2% retracement of 69.50 to 83.03 at 77.86 and below.

The Big Picture: Crude Oil was supported above 68.59 the Key support level, and so there was no confirmation of medium term reversal. The strong rebound from 69.50 dampened my Bearish POV, and augurs that the medium term rise from 33.2 may not be over yet.

But as such rise from 33.2 is treated as a correction to the whole decline from 147.27 only, even in case of another high above 83.95, I do continue to expect strong resistance near to 50% retracement of 147.27 to 33.2 at 90.24 to bring a reversal.

On the Downside: a break of the 69.50 support would indicate that Crude Oil has topped out in medium term and will turn the outlook Bearish. Stay tuned…

Comex Gold (GC)

Gold recovered after dipping to 1100.5 but the correction from 1145.8 might still continue in here. But any downside should be contained at the 1088.5 support level, and bring a Rally resumption. A close above 1128.3 will flip intra-day bias back to the Northside. And a further break of 1145.8 will then target the resistance at1163 next. But a sustained break of 1088.5 will indicate that entire rise from 1044.5 is completed and will turn outlook Bearish for another move towards this low.

The Big Picture: the price action from 1227.5 is treated as correction to rise from 931.3 only and might have completed at 1044.5 already after being supported by 61.8% retracement of 931.3 to 1227.5 at 1044.4. A strong break of the 1163 resistance will confirm this action. On a Rally resumption, the next medium term target will be 100% projection of 931.3 to 1227.5 from 1044.5 at 1340.7.

On the Downside: a break of the 1088.5 Key support will in then augur that correction from 1227.5 would extend further before completion. Stay tuned….

Market Indexes Technical Analysis

Stocks to Watch Today

Macy’s, Inc. (M), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc.(POT), and United Technologies Corporation (UTX)

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Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Mar 14th, 2010and filed underLatest News, Limelight, Market News, Oil, Opinion.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