Stocks seesawed Monday afternoon, giving back part of a morning rally that followed a strong rebound in consumer spending last month and above-consensus financial results by financial-services giant Citigroup (NYSE:C). Healthcare stocks again struggled in the afternoon swoon, turning negative ahead of the close after earlier posting moderate gains. But technology issues, which like healthcare stocks saw steep losses last week -- held on to much of their morning advance, closing on the positive side while the Dow Jones Composite closed near its high for the day, up 0.9% at 16,173.24
Strong Data
Stocks rallied earlier after the Commerce Department reported retail sales rose a better-than-expected 1.1% in March, the strongest monthly growth since September 2012. The agency also revised February sales higher, now recording a 0.7% rise, up from an originally reported 0.3% advance.
Also, Monday, business inventories grew 0.4% in February to a seasonally adjusted $1.72 trillion, coming in just short of the 0.5% consensus estimate. The inventory-to-sales ratio remained unchanged at 1.31.
Although stocks have largely shrugged off weekend bloodshed in Ukraine, geo-political unrest continues to fuel a safe-haven bid for Gold. June futures for the yellow metal were up $9.10 to $1,327.70 per ounce, rising for a fifth day in a row, while May silver was up 7 cents to $20.01 per ounce.
In other commodities trade, crude oil for May delivery settled 31 cents higher at $104.05 per barrel while May natural gas was down 6 cents to $4.56 per 1 million BTU. May copper rose a penny to finish at $3.06 per pound.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At Day's End
- Dow Jones Industrial Average up 146.49 (+0.91%) to 16,173.24
- S&P 500 up 14.92 (+0.82%) to 1,830.61
- Nasdaq Composite Index up 22.96 (+0.57%) to 4,022.69
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- Hang Seng Index up 0.15%
- Shanghai China Composite Index up 0.05%
- FTSE 100 Index up 0.34%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) GDP, Said a new well in southeastern Louisiana reached a peak of 1,270 barrels of oil equivalent per day, almost entirely consisting of crude oil.
- (+) EW, Federal judge in Delaware late Friday grants preliminary injunction limiting the sale of Medtronic's (MDT) CoreValue aortic-value replacement system, saying it "willfully infringes" on EW patents. MDT shares slip.
- (+) HLF, Said it has no knowledge of any investigation by the Department of Justice or the FBI, refuting a report late Friday by Financial Times of a criminal probe into the company's business practices.
- (+) AHL, Hits all-time high after rejecting a $3.2 billion buyout offer by rival Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd (ENH), calling it an "ill-conceived proposal." ENH shares fall.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) CVM, Prices $10 million "best efforts" offering of 7.14 mln equity units at $1.40 each. The units consist of one share of common stock and one-quarter of a warrant to purchase another share at $1.58 prior to Oct. 17.
- (-) BOSC, Q4 non-GAAP profit falls 61% from year-ago levels despite improved GAAP earnings and revenue during the quarter.
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader.
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