Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Oil soars & stocks go higher

Oil reached new record levels, nearing 123 but settled up 1.87 at 121.86. Despite the strong commodities markets (gold is back at 876), stocks had a good day. Dow was up 51, advancers ahead of decliners almost 2-1 & NAZ up 19. FNM, DHI, UBS & WB all had negative financial reports but the markets ignored them. Dow is back over 13K & S&P500 is solidly above the important 1400 level although NYSE volume continues to drag along at 1¼B. Energy was strong on higher oil prices & financials did well. In energy, MLPs after sticking around 293 for a couple of weeks picked up another 2 today to 297. Because this is the time of the year MLPs go ex-distribution, a "real" figure ignoring that effect would be a little higher.

After hours, Disney (DIS), a Dow company, & Cisco (CSCO) had excellent reports sending each up about 57¢ in after hours trading. This activity should be a good omen for trading tomorrow.

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