Stocks celebrated the New Year by posting a 1.5% gain on its first day of trading before settling in for the rest of the week, ending Friday only 35 points higher than the Monday close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week at 10,618, well over the 10,500 resistence level which was penetrated on December 14 with the S&P settling above its resistence of around 1120 with a close of 1144. Encouraging words from the Fed and Treasury regarding keeping interest rates low offered traders reason to remain optimistic which led to Monday’s impressive move which broke through muti-month highs. Even Friday’s disappointing December unemployment number couldn’t hold back the charging bulls. Potential resistance for the S&P 500 is at 1,157.80 with major resistance at 1300. The first sign of resistence for the Dow Jones Industrials is at 11,000.
The Financial sector looks to improve in 2010 after rallying 6% for the week pushing through stiff resistance. Technology stocks continue to dominate Wall Street evidenced by the Nasdaq soaring 2.1% for the week. The Internet sector remains one of the strongest with the Internet HOLDRS Trust (HHH) gaining more than 69% during the past 52 weeks.
Fourth quarter earnings will take the stage in the coming week with Alcoa (AA) reporting on Monday. Additional earnings from KB Home (KBH), Intel (INTC), and J P Morgan will be reported throughout the week. Economic news will include December retail sales on Thursday with Friday reporting the December CPI, capacity utilization and industrial production, the Empire State manufacturing index and Michigan’s consumer sentiment index.
The data from our managed portfolios was not available when I penned this commentary. I will post it when I get it.
In the meantime, Happy trading.
Michael