| 12:00 ET Dow +57, Nasdaq +22, S&P +3.54: [BRIEFING.COM] The bulls may have reined in their enthusiasm from yesterday's session, but they haven't let go of the reins so to speak as they remain in control of the market action... That was evident at the start of trading when the Nasdaq continued its winning ways and when a dip in the DJIA was quickly met with buying interest that saw the blue chip average soar more than 70 points in a matter of minutes... The bullish bias in the early-going was fueled by carryover interest from yesterday's encouraging rally, a better than expected earnings report from CIENA (CIEN +0.65), solid gains in overseas markets, and Citigroup's (C -1.03) $12.5 bln acquisition of Bannaci, Mexico's No. 2 banking group... Briefing.com should note that there were some misgivings among traders regarding CIENA as the company later acknowledged on its conference call that it expected gross margins to be down 100 bp in the July qtr (were 45.6% in Apr qtr) due to what it calls "desperate" pricing measures by some of its competitors... That admission triggered some general earnings concerns that took the steam out of the futures trade, but as we previously indicated, the cash market was quick to look past such concerns, confident that the economy and earnings prospects will be rebounding in the latter half of the year... Some support for that view came around 10ET when the index of Leading Indicators showed a 0.1% increase in April that was only the third increase in the last 12 months... In the wake of that report, the indices pushed to new session highs; however, it wasn't long before some selling activity occurred as the surge created a near-term overbought condition that prompted a wave of profit taking... The indices basically fell back to unchanged levels, but they have rebounded in the past half hour, averse to red figures and benefitting from an inclination on the part of traders to use dips as a buying opportunity... Select leadership from the technology sector and broad-based gains amongst the retailers have been the market's main source of support... On the heels of a better than expected earnings report, Hewlett-Packard (HWP +3.01) has led the Dow's advance... Notable laggards today have included the HMO, consumer goods, and insurance companies... SOX +1.2%... BTK +4.5%... Nasdaq 100 +1.4%... NYSE Adv/Dec 1700/1190... Nasdaq Adv/Dec 2123/1338. |
