Re-cap of the US Stock Market Action for the session ending 31 March 2010

The S&P 500 is up 72.9% from its March 9, 2009 bottom. For Q-1, and for Y 2010 as well, the DJIA is up 4.1%, the S&P 500 is up 4.9%, and the leading NAS is up 5.7%.

On the Month of March: the DJIA rose 5.1%, the S&P 500 gained 5.9% and the leading NAS tallied up a + 7.1%

On the Day: US Stocks slipped on Wednesday on a 1-2 punch from ADP Employer Services data showing US private-sector employers cut some jobs in March + a separate report that showed US Midwest business activity expanded less than expected in March leading some investors to lock in profits in the strong performing sectors, such as consumer discretionary shares, which rose  10% + in Q-1.

The DJIA slid 50.79 pts, or 0.47%, to close at 10,856.63, the S&P 500 lost 3.84 pts, or 0.33%, to close at 1,169.43, and the NAS tallied up a minus 12.73 pts, or 0.53%, to end the session at 2,397.96.

From my POV I (including my mate Shayne Heffernan at LTN and lots of others too) expect Q-2 to get off on solid footing on the performance of the upcoming earnings season’s results which will likely be stronger that expected.

A legal ruling in U.S. oil giant Chevron’s favor helped drive the DJIA component’s stock up 0.7% to US$75.83, limiting the Dow’s decline, and signaled players to buy energy-related shares. A jump in Crude Oil’s price above US$83 bbl to its highest close since October 2008 helped the energy sector too.

This Rally has inspired some investors to trim some of their stock bets (they will be back there is no other place for the money). Investors pulled US$926M from domestic stock funds in the week ending March 24, the first draw down since the week ended March 3, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Advancing Sectors: Energy (+0.4%), Financials (+0.2%)

Declining Sectors: Consumer Discretionary (-0.8%), Tech (-0.6%), Industrials (-0.6%), Consumer Staples (-0.5%), Materials (-0.5%), Telecom (-0.5%), Utilities (-0.3%), Health Care (-0.3%)

Volume and Breadth: About 8.47b/shrs traded on the NYSE, the AMEX and NAS, below last year’s estimated daily average of 9.65b/shrs. Decliners beat advancers on the NYSE by 3 to 2, and on the NAS, about 8 stocks fell for each 5 that rose.

Market Indexes Technical Analysis

Stocks to Watch Today

The ALLSTATE Corp. (ALL), Bank of Ireland (IRE), JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU), and Key Corporation (KEY)

Read full report below:

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Apr 1st, 2010and filed underLatest News, Limelight, Oil.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