Banking & housing optimism takes stocks higher

The Dow shot up out of the gate & didn't look back for the rest of the day as AT&T (T) was the only loser in the Dow. Dow gained 235, advancers over decliners 5-1 & NAZ was up 52. After drifting in May, it may be trying for an assault on 8776, starting point for 2009. The S&P 500 closed at 909.71, back in the black for 2009. Leading the Dow, banks had another great day as they are also trying to get back to their starting point of 171 for this year.


Dow Jones Industrials --- YTD




S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value 165.72

Change 11.12

% Change 7.2%

Speaking of new highs for 2009, Bank of America (BAC) is also trying to reach a new high for 2009, today up 1.06.


Bank of America --- YTD




MLPs, REITs & junk bond funds were strong as investors keep pursuing high yield securities.The MLP Index was up 5 & the more volatile REIT Index was up 10. The VIX, dropped 3 to only 30. Treasury bonds were also weak. The 10 year Treasury pulled back, taking its yield up to 3.21%

Meanwhile oil is pushing on the $60 ceiling again, ahead of a long weekend requiring a lot of gas for driving holidays.

CLM09.NYM

..Crude Oil Jun 09

..59.22

.. 2.88 ......(5.11%)

The following tables (courtesy of Bloomberg) detail first-quarter earnings results for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. For the quarter to date, 463 companies out of the 500 have reported their earnings. Income from continuing operations and net income are given on a year-over-year basis. Sectors & industries are sorted in alphabetical order. The full table is on the link below, I copied only the banking & financial sectors:

              CONT OPS                    NET
TKR                        Q1/09    Q1/08     %      Q1/09     Q1/08     %
SYM   COMPANY              (MIL)    (MIL)    CHG     (MIL)     (MIL)    CHG
==============================================================================
GRAND TOTAL            113299.64 173288.31   -34.6  73960.77 149484.26 

Commercial Banks

BBT  BB&T Corp            294.40    401.00   -26.6    312.00    428.00   -27.1
CMA  Comerica Inc          -2.40    109.00  -102.2      9.00    109.00   -91.7
FHN  First Horizon Nati   -62.04     20.88  -397.1    -67.85      7.92  -956.6
FITB Fifth Third Bancor   -51.00    413.99  -112.3     50.00    286.00   -82.5
HBAN Huntington Bancsha     6.80    112.38   -93.9  -2433.21    127.07 -2014.9
KEY  Keycorp             -361.00    218.00  -265.6   -488.00    218.00  -323.9
MI   Marshall & Ilsley   -143.00    100.85  -241.8    -91.97    146.21  -162.9
MTB  M&T Bank Corp         85.70    175.51   -51.2     64.22    202.20   -68.2
PNC  PNC Financial Serv   679.00    354.00    91.8    526.00    377.00    39.5
RF   Regions Financial   -132.95    383.60  -134.7     77.00    336.67   -77.1
STI  SunTrust Banks Inc  -116.82    216.00  -154.1   -815.17    290.56  -380.6
USB  US Bancorp           529.00   1120.55   -52.8    529.00   1090.00   -51.5
WFC  Wells Fargo & Co    3507.88   1999.00    75.5   3045.00   1999.00    52.3
ZION Zions Bancorporati   -18.01    125.14  -114.4   -826.04    106.75  -873.8
                      4215.55   5749.89   -26.7   -110.01   5724.37  -101.9
Consumer Finance
AXP  American Express C   367.00    974.00   -62.3    437.00    991.00   -55.9
COF  Capital One Financ   -86.92    548.50  -115.8   -111.88    548.50  -120.4
DFS  Discover Financial  -176.61    238.83  -173.9    120.39     81.21    48.2
SLM  SLM Corp              13.88    188.00   -92.6    -21.39   -103.80    79.4
                       117.36   1949.33   -94.0    424.13   1516.91

Quarterly Income Summary for S&P 500 Companies by Industries May


The link below gives the 463 S&P companies in alphabetical order:

Quarterly Income Summary for S&P 500 Companies (Table) May 18


Markets behaved today as if the dreary numbers from Q1 are only a distant memory. Every stock I owned was in the green, but it doesn't feel quite right.