Breaking Wall Street Market News & Reports

In the wake of Friday’s major payrolls-related rally, the bulls seemed slightly exhausted today. Some high-profile merger-and-acquisition newsprovided a bit of lift in early trading, with MetLife (MET) agreeing to purchase American International Group’s (AIG) Alico subsidiary for $15.5 billion. McDonald’s (MCD) enjoyed a positive session after reporting solid sales figures for February. But, thanks to a relative lack of major earnings and economic reports, the major market indexes shrugged off these developments and meandered rather aimlessly around the breakeven line for most of the session. However, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite (COMP) was something of a standout, with the index touching a fresh annual high in today’s trading. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 13.68, or 0.1 percent, to close at 10,552.52. The S&P 500 ended flat; the Nasdaq rose 0.2 percent. 

Big anniversary coming up for the market this week: Tuesday marks one year since the March 9, 2008 lows. Some traders said there could be some profit-taking.

Among the buzz in the market today, a survey by the National Association of Business Economists showed most business economists expect the Fed to hike rates within six months by between a quarter and a half percentage point.

Cisco CSCO  26.148 was also at the front of the Dow pack after JPMorgan started coverage of the stock with an “overweight” rating and a $28 price target, citing the potential demand for networking equipment from growth in mobile data and server virtualization. CISCO was mentioned on my Large Cap selection.

Insurers declined as President Obama criticized insurance providers for high premiums and denying coverage to the sick in a speech in Philadelphia. It was the first of several speeches the president will deliver to try to gain support for health-care reform. Again, it seems to me everytime Obama mentions health care reform stocks tend to head south. He’s been the downer lately. I remain pessimistic in the Health Care and Insurance arena as politics stands in the way.

Humana, WellPoint and Aetna all ended lower.

Still to Come:

TUESDAY: NABE conference; Anniversary of market’s March lows; Fed’s Evans speaks; 3-year Treasury auction
WEDNESDAY: Obama health-care speech; weekly mortgage apps; wholesale trade; state unemployment rates; Google hearing; weekly crude inventories; 10-year auction; earnings from American-Eagle Outfitters
THURSDAY: $2B California bond sale; international trade; weekly jobless claims; 30-year auction; earnings from Nat Semi, Aeropostale
FRIDAY: Gov’ts retail-sales report; consumer sentiment; business inventories; earnings from Ann Taylor

ACE

Tags: AETNA, AIG, CSCO, Health Care reform

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Contributors, Large Cap Stocks, Stock Market News, Technology Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.