Five Of Ten Sectors On S&P Finish Higher – Acadiana Business Index

Markets ended the session higher, albeit off of their best levels. Ken Meyers has your stock market report on the Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 51 points to close at 13,168 after being up as many as 98 points in midsession trading. The S&P 500 gained 8 points to end at 1402 and the NASDAQ advanced 26 points to 3016.
• Stocks rallied from the opening bell on optimism that the ECB and Federal Reserve might be getting closer to supplying stimulus to the markets. Despite this, stocks eased from their best levels after U.S. consumer credit figures for June fell short of expectations.
• Five of the 10 sectors on the S&P finished higher, led by a rally in energy stocks as crude oil rose $1.24 to $93.44 per barrel. Chesapeake Energy paced the advance with shares adding $1.68 to $19.38 after their CEO said that natural gas prices could be entering a multi-year up trend.
• The economically sensitive industrial and material sectors also showed strength. Freeport McMoRan gained 94 cents to $35.28 and Caterpillar rallied 87 cents to $87.22 in the session.
• Composite volume on the NYSE was 3.6 billion shares with advancing issues besting decliners by a margin of 7-4. The NASDAQ was nearly 2-1 positive on issues.
• Turning to fixed income, Treasuries were lower along the curve. The benchmark 10-year note was down 1/2 of a point to yield 1.62% and the 30-year bond fell over a point to yield 2.72%.

For the complete report, Ken's Market Report.