Blog Home

Send Us Your Comments And Questions

RSS Feed

US Stocks Week Ended March 9, 2012 Posted Under: Weekly Market Commentary   Last week the S&P 500 Index returned a slightly positive 0.14%. While 14 bps sounds like an uneventful week, last Tuesday brought the worst day of the year for the S&P 500 Index returning -1.53%. Prior to last Tuesday, the S&P 500 Index’s worst day of 2012 was February 10, with a -0.69% return. News of the completion of the Greek debt swap quickly turned sour as the ISDA (International Swaps & Derivatives Association) declared the debt restructuring a credit event which triggers CDS payments. In US economic news, initial jobless claims increased the past week to 362K from 354K the prior week with a consensus of 351K. Claims are still coming in lower than in the previous three years with claims peaking at 659K in late March 2009. Initial jobless claims haven’t been this low since early 2008. Non-farm payrolls for February came in at 227K, 17K more than the 210K consensus. Also, the January payroll number was revised upward to 284K from 243K. The University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Confidence Sentiment came in at 75.3 for February. The 12 month low of 55.7 was in August 2011. The top performing sector for the week was telecommunication services up 1.12%. Consumer discretionary and consumer staples returned 1.04% and 0.71% respectively. The materials sector performed the worst of all ten sectors returning -1.70%. The only other two sectors to have negative performance were energy and industrials returning -0.92% and -0.33% respectively. Sprint Nextel, a communications services company turned in the best performance in the S&P 500 with an 11.20% return and DR Horton a close second with 11.05% return. Lennar and Valero both returned over 9.00%. Tesoro, PulteGroup, Big Lots and Starbucks all returned over 6.00% for the week. Next week will bring more earnings news from companies such as Urban Outfitters, Guess? and Ross Stores. Posted on Monday, March 12, 2012 @ 8:33 AM • Post Link Share:   Printer Friendly

These posts were prepared by First Trust Advisors L. P., and reflect the current opinion of the authors. They are based upon sources and data believed to be accurate and reliable. Opinions and forward looking statements expressed are subject to change without notice. This information does not constitute a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security.

 

Most Current Posts

<<< Newer Posts •  Older Posts >>>

2013

2012

2011