All that's necessary today to find winners is throw darts. Dow is up 239, advancers ahead of decliners better than 5-1 & NAZ is up 65. Buyers responded to JP Morgan (JPM), a Dow company, up 1.12, raising the price for Bear Stearns (BSC) to 10 after all the complaining last week. BSC doubled to 11.91, the market's looking for even more. This gets a little complicated as the FED (guarantor of the debts) thought the price of 2 was fair. Under the revised terms, JPM will absorb the first $1B in losses saving the FED some money. There was no comment from the FED although it's a good guess JPM semi cleared the revised terms with them before making a public announcement. The markets like to see buyers of securities, even better is raising the price.
On the economic front, sales of homes rose 2.9% in Feb, better than expectations of another decline. While this is an indication that bleeding has stopped, this is not a final word. The price for a median home fell to $196K, largest such drop since record keeping started in 1999. Also the base for the increase was a low number, more ugly news could be coming down the road. In the meantime, throw darts to find winners.
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