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DAL, AAPL, XLK, AKAM, T. XLF, C, DB, HBC, LII, MAS, CHRW

DJIA 13074.04+39.55 (0.30%) NAS 2989.27+15.57 (0.52%) S&P 500 1413.94 +4.66 (0.33%)

Thursday’s session opened on uncertainty before the major averages began to rise to the closing highs.

Overseas, Standard & Poor’s lowered Greece’s long term credit rating to ‘Select Default’ from ‘CCC.’ Meanwhile, Germany’s DAX closed at its highest level in nearly 5 yrs.

Domestically, trade was confined to a narrow range, but late-day buying lifted the S&P 500 to a slim gain of 0.3%.

Industry Watch

Strong: Technology, Consumer Staples

Weak: Industrials, Material

The technology sector was the top performer, and the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF NYSEArca:XLK 28.91, +0.16)advanced 0.6%.

Apple NASDAQ:AAPL 547.24, +8.45 was down as much as 3.0% in early trade, but after marking its session low at $518.63, the stock reversed and finished higher by 1.6%.

Elsewhere, Akamai Technologies NASDAQ:AKAM 39.06, +3.56 rose 10.0% after the company announced a global strategic alliance with AT&T NYSE:T 33.65, -0.26. The newly forged partnership will allow Akamai to deploy CDN servers on the AT&T network in order to improve content routing and its delivery.
Financials registered slim gains and the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF NYSEARCA:XLF 15.90, +0.05 tacked on 0.3%.

Citigroup NYSE:C 37.02, +0.56) was the top performer among the majors. The stock settled higher by 0.9% to extend yesterday’s 6.3% rally sparked by the announcement of plans to dismiss more than 11,000 employees.

Looking at European financials, Deutsche Bank NYSE:DB 45.49, -0.58 slid 1.3% after reports from Reuters indicated the bank may have hid up to $12-B in losses in order to avoid having to accept a government bailout.

Also of note, HSBC Holdings NYSE: HBC 51.75, -0.12) shed 0.2% after Reuters reported the company may be facing a $1.8-B money-laundering fine.

The industrial sector was the weakest performer and manufacturers of building products weighed. Lennox International NYSE:LII 51.07, -0.49 and Masco NYSE:MAS 15.78, -0.43 fell 1.0% and 2.7%, respectively.

Interested in Investing in Asia? Hedge Funds, Real Estate, Trading, Research, Advice

Linda Johnson,
Business Development Director – Private Client Group,
Heffernan Capital Management
Sales@Heffcap.com

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The Dow Jones Transportation Average underperformed and shed 0.1%.

Most transportation stocks were on the decline and CH Robinson NASDAQ:CHRW 60.64, -1.27 was the big laggard. The freight carrier finished lower by 2.1% and other truckers registered losses as well.

Crude Oil settled lower by 1.7%, airlines outperformed. Delta Air Lines NYSE:DAL 10.02, +0.31 gained 3.2% and was the best performing carrier. Earlier, the company has finalized its agreement with Bombardier Aerospace, which will allow Delta to continue renovating its domestic fleet by replacing its least efficient jets.

US Major Market Indexes Technical Analysis
Date Symbol Price Technical Analysis Support Resistance
6 Dec 2012 QQQ 65.15 Neutral (-0.19) 65.07 65.62
6 Dec 2012 DIA 130.7 Neutral (-0.07) 130.52 131.12
7 Dec 2012 SPY 141.63 Neutral (0.04) 141.58 143.49

The latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 370,000, which is lower than the 382,000 that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus. The tally is below the revised prior week count of 395,000. As for continuing claims, they fell to 3.205-M from 3.305-M.

November Challenger Job Cuts rose by 34.4% Y-Y after the prior month’s reading pointed to an 11.6% increase.

In Friday’s economic data, November nonfarm payrolls, nonfarm private payrolls, unemployment rate, hourly earnings, and average workweek will all be released at 8:30a EST.

December Michigan Sentiment and October consumer credit will be reported at 9:55a EST and 3:00 p EST, respectively.