After a 1 year rally, markets fail to have an impressive advance

Stocks wanted to advance on the one year anniversary of last year's lows. But advances were tepid followed by selling going into the close (as shown in the BigCharts widget in the right column). Dow ended up only 11, advancers over decliners by 20% & NAZ gained 8. Banks had been doing well, but also saw selling in the last hour limiting the gain for the Financial Index.


S&P 500 FINANCIALS INDEX

Value 205.60

Change 0.56

% Change 0.3%

The MLP index finally did it, gaining 1.59 to over 301 for a new high since late 2007. The REIT rose 0.98 to almost 191, barely good enough for another post Sep 2008 high. Junk bond funds generally had modest gains. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell 1 basis point to 3.70%.

Alerian MLP Index --- 1 year




Dow Jones REIT Index --- 1 year





Oil & gold slipped back today, but continue to have favorable outlooks longer term.

CLJ10.NYM

..Crude Oil Apr 10

..81.43

.. 0.40 ......(0.5%)

GCH10.CMX

..Gold Mar 10

..1,122.00 T

.. 1.60 ......(0.1%)

Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sakuma


Chevron (CVX), Dow stock, will cut 2K jobs this year & sell some overseas operations to revamp its struggling refinery, marketing & transportation operations. The job cuts represent almost 12% of the 17K workers in the downstream part of its business & just over 3% of its overall work force. At least all the the job cuts will not be in the US. CVX will reduce spending by $1B this year on downstream businesses (including refining, marketing & transportation). The stock slipped 34¢ after doing so-so in the last year.

• Chevron to shed 2,000 jobs, sell some assets- AP

Chevron --- 1 year






The speculative issues are leading the charge forward in this year's rally. AIG (AIG), which still owes the gov $Bs, ended Feb at 24.77, today it was up 3.67 to 32.77. MLPs, REITs & junk bonds also have nice gains, less spectacular but nice. Banks in generally have been doing well in the last month (shown in the Financial Index above). Risk is being rewarded rather than avoided (like it was 1 year ago).

AIG Shares Surge on Speculation Insurer May Sell More Assets


AIG --- 1 year

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This was another one of those days which should have seen stocks celebrating a significant event. But that didn't happen. Dreary economic problems aren't going away anytime soon & the performance of stocks in recent days may be reflecting that sentiment. The enthusiasm for speculative grade securities (such as AIG) is worrisome for those who want solid companies to lead the next round of advances in the stock markets.


Dow Jones Industrials --- 1 year




Nasdaq --- 1 year