Dow 12,380 S&P500 1,328 Nasdaq 2,780 Gold 1,473 Oil 112
Markets went nowhere this week as traders waited to see if Washington would pass a budget. The real story of the week was new two-year highs for Oil (NYSE:USO) and record highs for Gold (NYSE:GLD) and Silver (NYSE:SLV).
Now, for the 15 reasons markets moved this week:
Monday
1) Stocks had no mojo. Now that money mangers closed their books last Friday, many are officially enjoying some spring break time with the kids. As Easter and other holidays approach, brace yourselves for boredom. Basic Materials (NYSE:XLB) had the best day with leaders such as Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE:SLW), Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX), Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (NYSE:POT), and Teck Resources Limited (NYSE:TCK). Don’t Miss: The Top Exchange Traded Fund for Your Capital Goods and Industrials Investing Watchlist.
2) US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warned the US will hit the debt limit by May 16th. Of course, we expect lawmakers to raise the limit. Geithner’s letter to Harry Reid is full of scary language warning lawmakers of rain clouds and Armageddon should they choose not to act.
3) Oil (NYSE:USO) continues to stay in demand. $108 a barrel is going to affect energy (NYSE:XLE) prices. A few top Oil & Gas companies followed higher: Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), BP (NYSE:BP), and Suncor Energy (NYSE:SU). Don’t Miss: The Top 10 Exchange Traded Funds for Your Oil Investing List.
Tuesday
1) The US Services sector continues to expand. Although the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index came in below Wall Street expectation, 16 out of 17 sectors expanded. Check Out: Chart of the Day: US Services Sector Breathes, But Still Expanding.
2) The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ:QQQ) is rebalancing. It was bad news for Nasdaq OMX Group’s (NASDAQ:NDAQ) former love Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Apple currently comprises 20.49% of the index, but will drop to 12.33%. However, other tech heavy-weights are cheering the move. Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) is increases its weighting to 8.3% from 3.41%, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) increases to 4.2% from 1.75%, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) increases to 6.68% from 3.38%, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) increases to 5.8%. That’s some nice wind on the back of new CEO Larry Page.
3) Bonus: Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) sets a new 52-week high. We recommended Chipotle to our Wall St. Cheat Sheet Investment Newsletter subscribers when it was trading at $140. Today it hit $280. That’s a sample of the low risk, high reward picks we’ve been delivering consistently for over 2-years. Get your free copy today!
Wednesday
1) Sellers couldn’t control an otherwise quiet day. If you believe in technical analysis, the path of least resistance continues to be up for stocks.
2) Financials (NYSE:XLF) rallied all day. Citigroup (NYSE:C) caught an analyst upgrade yesterday which allowed the rest of the big banks — Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) to rise on continued hope the worst is behind us.
3) Tech pulled some weight. Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) CEO John Chambers finally said something about the stocks sink into the black hole. Investors must think things have reached rock bottom. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) followed suit rising over 2%.
Thursday
1) Oil (NYSE:USO) is like a tech stock in 1999. Another day, another gain for oil. Oil traded flat for most of the morning until news broke that Japan (NYSE:EWJ) got hammered by two more earthquakes. It was like someone pressed the “oil price spike” button in the trading pits. Don’t Miss Oil ETFS: The Top 10 Exchange Traded Funds for Your Oil Investing List.
2) Industrials (NYSE:XLI) got slammed. Although General Electric (NYSE:GE) announced a huge solar (NYSE:TAN) project, the stock was down almost 1%. 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) and United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) also traded lower.
3) Online video is heating up. Although Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) announced a great deal to stream Lion’s Gate (NYSE:LGF) hit show Mad Men, the stocks got slammed as hot money traders took profits on Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced $100 million investment in YouTube and Dish’s (NASDAQ:DISH) purchase of Blockbuster. Have no fear … unless you think that big second bump on the Netflix chart is a double-top.
Friday
1) Oil (NYSE:USO) is stepping on the jugular of risk. Did you buy Oil (NYSE:USO) on the dip? Wow! Feels like 2008 again. The weak dollar (NYSE:UDN) helped out today. Don’t Miss Oil ETFS: The Top 10 Exchange Traded Funds for Your Oil Investing List.
2) Airlines and Autos skidded. If a company heavily relies on oil or gas as an input cost, investors threw it to the wolves. Today’s short sellers took aim at airline stocks such as AMR Corporation (NYSE:AMR) down over 4.4%, Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) down almost 4%, United Continental (NYSE:UAL) down 5.7%, JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) down 4.25%, US Airways (NYSE:LCC) down 3.6%, Alaska Air (NYSE:ALK) down 4.4%, while discount airlines Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) and AirTran Holdings (NYSE:AAI) were down only ~ 1%.
3) Ups and Downs. The self-proclaimed “family company” Johnson&Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) will pay a $70 million fine after admitting to bribery. On the other end of the legal spectrum, the U.S. Justice Department said Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may move forward with the $700 million purchase of flight-data company ITA Software Inc.; however, Google must comply with several requests such as continued licensing to online airfare-search sites for five years, continued research and development of software at levels that are similar to ITA’s investments in recent years, and more.
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