Subscribe to our newsletter

US Stocks: Wall Street Preview

DE, CMCSA, BAC, C, QCOM, AAPL

Wednesday’s economic data: weekly MBA Mortgage Index will be reported at 7:00a EST. At 8:30a EST January retail sales, retail sales ex-auto, export prices ex-agriculture, and import prices ex-Crude Oil will all be released.

December business inventories will be announced at 10:00a EST.

In notable earnings reports: Comcast NASDAQ:CMCSA 38.97, +0.33, and Deere NYSE:DE 93.97, +0.74 will report their quarterly results prior to the opening bell.

The US Treasury will auction $24-B in 10-yr T-Notes.

US Major Market Indexes Technical Analysis
Date Symbol Price Technical Analysis Support Resistance
12 Feb 2013 QQQ 67.82 Bullish (0.37) 66.97 68.16
12 Feb 2013 DIA 139.96 Bullish (0.46) 139.66 140.75
12 Feb 2013 SPY 152.03 Bullish (0.41) 151.69 152.69

Tuesday’s Market Action, Finish Mixed on Below Average Volume

DJIA +47.46 at 14018.70, NAS -5.51 at 3186.49, S&P 500 +2.42 at 1519.43

Tuesday’s floor volume represented a marked improvement over Monday’s, and well below average, just over 610-M shares changed hands.

Industry Watch: Strong: Financials, Industrials, Weak: Materials

Strong: Financials, Industrials
Weak: Materials
Equities finished the day on a mixed. The DJIA climbed 0.3% and registered its highest close of the year, the S&P 500 added 0.2%, and NAS shed 0.2%. The Key indices rose to their highs in afternoon trade as financials led the advance.

The financial sector led throughout the session, and the S&P 500 Financials Index climbed above 240 for the 1st time since October 2008.

Bank of America NYSE:BAC 12.24, +0.38 and Citigroup NYSE:C 44.35, +1.20 both gained near 3.0%.
The financials led throughout the session,and the defense oriented telecommunication stocks spent the day on the up swing, finishing 2nd best sector on the day.

Technology stocks: The sector was pressured by Apple NASDAQ:AAPL 467.90, -12.03, which lost 2.5%, after CEO Tim Cook did not hint at near-term changes to the company’s dividend policy.

Qualcomm NASDAQ:QCOM 65.88, -1.30 fell 1.9% after JPMorgan Chase NYSE:JPM downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight.’

Looking at the S&P 500 sector breakdown, financials (+0.8%) and telecoms (+0.6%) were the clear leaders while technology (-0.5%), health care (-0.2%), and consumer staples (-0.1%) brought up the rear.

Overseas, world leaders are preparing for the G-20 summit scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg later this week. Reports from the meetings will be closely watched as recent months have seen a rise in currency commentary. With Japan taking active efforts to weaken the yen and daily remarks from European officials suggesting what the “right” level for the euro should be, the summit is likely to produce some noteworthy quotes.

Investors received just one economic report today and it came in the form of the January Treasury budget. This report pointed to a surplus of $2.88-B, which was better than the deficit of $2.0-B expected by the consensus.