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Nick Godt's Market Medics
April 14, 2010, 6:30 p.m. EDT · Recommend (2) · Post:
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Stocks just need those 'good enough' earnings
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Goldman ties to insider case reveal Wall Street
By Nick Godt, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- It was sunny weather all around for Wall Street on Wednesday, both inside and outside the New York Stock Exchange.
With no clouds on the horizon and a balmy 70 degrees, the Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (INDU 11,146, +22.82, +0.21%) rallied more than 100 points, leaving the sticky 11,000 level far behind in the dust, as the broad S&P 500 index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,213, +2.01, +0.17%) galloped past the 1,200 mark.
WSJ's Emma Moody joins the News Hub with insight on today's market rally.
Both feats helped ease concerns among technical investors that the recent struggle to pass through those levels might mean an impending correction for a stock market that's now up more than 80% since the crisis lows it reached in March 2009.
Since its last pull-back triggered by the eruption of the Greek crisis in late January, the stock market has advanced in 8 of the past 9 weeks for an overall gain of 14%.
Yet, now that Greece is firmly placed on the backburner of investor concerns, a major source of restraint of investor enthusiasm has also faded into the background.
That leaves few things in the way of the market's bull run, or as contrarian investors would say, less room to climb up the old proverbial wall of worry.
With earnings taking center stage this week, Alcoa Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!aa/quotes/nls/aa (AA 14.33, -0.10, -0.69%) did try to play the part with quarterly results that missed analysts expectations on Monday. That made for some much needed suspense for a market whose pulse had gone dangerously low.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index, or VIX /quotes/comstock/20m!i:vix (VIX 15.86, +0.27, +1.73%) , also known as the market's fear gauge, did tick higher on Tuesday.
But by Wednesday, the VIX was again plumbing 30-month lows. Nothing like pleasing results from JP Morgan Chase /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 47.95, +0.22, +0.46%) and from Intel /quotes/comstock/15*!intc/quotes/nls/intc (INTC 24.20, +0.68, +2.89%) to make investors forget all about the botched Alcoa kick-off to the season.
A jump in retail sales, and further evidence, if it were needed, that U.S. inflation is not a problem, also helped.
Forecasts that the U.S. economy might experience a double-dip recession have mostly gone from investors radar screens, to be replaced by fresh happy-talk that a V-shaped recovery can now be expected.
Regardless of the reality of either scenarios, what matters most for the short-term direction of the stock market is to determine how everybody feels about it.
When the market is going down, investors shoot first and ask questions later. Right now, the benefit of the doubt is being given.
For instance on Wednesday, shares of Morgan Stanley /quotes/comstock/13*!ms/quotes/nls/ms (MS 30.96, -0.18, -0.59%) gained 2.2% even after The Wall Street Journal reported that one of its real-estate funds with $8.8 billion may lose nearly two-thirds of its money.
And Apple Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!aapl/quotes/nls/aapl (AAPL 248.31, +2.62, +1.06%) gained 1.3%, even after the firm said it will delay the global launch of the iPad by a month.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s role in the Galleon hedge fund insider-trading probe is great headline fodder, but the takeaways from the case shed light on an industry-wide issue, David Weidner writes.
10:43 a.m. Today10:43 a.m. April 15, 2010 | Comments: 15
- 2009Citizen | 7:00 p.m. April 14, 2010
"bgetting ready for No Agenda on the www.noagendastream.com #noagenda" 11:00 a.m. EDT, April 15, 2010 from THErealDVORAK
"the market has its freq on http://is.gd/btFjg" 5:12 a.m. EDT, April 15, 2010 from davidweidner
"Peter Brimelow: Letter called bull market, and says more to come http://on.mktw.net/bYXo0H" 12:20 a.m. EDT, April 15, 2010 from MKTWBrimelow
"Intel seeks to conquer smartphones with Atom http://on.mktw.net/boE2mB" 11:44 p.m. EDT, April 14, 2010 from tpoletti
"The Web makes personal finance easy -- or does it?: Managing one's personal finances can be exhausting. Doing... http://on.mktw.net/aq8gU4" 6:27 p.m. EDT, April 14, 2010 from MKTWCoombes
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