Closing Update: Stocks End at Day's Highs, Advance Eight Days Out of Nine

4:13 PM, Sep 16, 2009 --

-NYSE up 121.05 (1.8%) to 7,038.12.

-DJIA up 108.1 (1.1%) to 9,791.

-S&P 500 up 16.1 (1.5%) to 1,069.

-Nasdaq up 30.5 (1.5%) to 2,133.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

Hang Seng up 2.57%

Nikkei up 0.52%

FTSE up 1.64%

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) C recovers portion of previous loss that followed reports gov't selling stake.

(+) OMTR sold to Adobe (ADBE) for $21.50 per share.

(+) KERX, AEZS get orphan drug status for multiple myeloma treatment.

(+) ACAS sold to Corning (GLW) for $400 mln cash.

(+) IVAN announces technical breakthrough in upgrading process.

(+) FLEX gets favorable mention on Jim Cramer program.

(+) RMBS raised sales forecast.

(+) AMZN gets upgrade.

(+) MSO recovered from early decline that followed analyst downgrade.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) ADBE beat with results, guidance mixed, making OMTR acquisition.

(-) VZ gets analyst downgrade.

MARKET DIRECTION

Stocks carve out fresh 11-month highs after gaining in eight of the past nine sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes up more than 1%. The S&P 500 ends up 1.5%. The Nasdaq Composite closes up 1.4%.

Crude oil closes up 2.2% at $72.51 a barrel, gaining amid a weaker dollar and a bigger-than-expected drop of 4.7 million barrels in U.S. stockpiles in the week ended Sept. 11.

December Gold finished at $1,020.20 an ounce, up $13.90, or 1.4%, on the day. It earlier reached an intraday high of $1,023.30, its highest level since March 2008.

Stronger-than-expected industrial production data lifted stocks and commodities.

The Federal Reserve said industrial activity surged 0.8 percent in August, better than the 0.6 percent increase economists had forecast. The Fed also revised July's figures to a 1 percent increase, twice as much as originally reported.

Earlier, the Commerce Department said its Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation at the retail level, rose 0.4 percent in August, just above the 0.3 percent rise economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected.

Excluding volatile energy and food prices, the index rose 0.1 percent and was in line with expectations.

Mergers and acquisitions, a couple of analyst upgrades and other positive company news also gave an early boost to stocks.

Among active movers, Citigroup (C) took back some of the 9% drop posted in Tuesday's regular session following reports the company is in talks with the U.S. government about selling some of the government's nearly 8 billion share stake in the bank.

Adobe (ADBE) declined but its deal news is considered encouraging on Wall Street. Adobe beat on Q3, set Q4 guidance that straddled Street estimates, and announced a deal to acquire Omniture (OMTR). Omniture will be sold to ADBE for $21.50 per share or about $1.8 billion. OMTR is about 25% higher on the news.

American Capital (ACAS) gained on news it is selling Axygen to Corning (GLW) for about $400 million in cash.

Hi-Shear (HSR) will be bought by Chemring Group for $132 million in cash.

Rambus (RMBS) late Tuesday raised its Q3 sales forecast, citing stronger chip demand, which led to higher royalty payments.

Keryx (KERX) jumped after its cancer drug gets FDA orphan drug status.

Amazon.com (AMZN) got an upgrade from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to "buy" from "neutral." The price goal also was raised to $103 from $95.

Digital River (DRIV) gained on an upgrade to "outperform" from "neutral" at Credit Suisse.

Comments

[robert.b.fe...:]

At least some of the commodities rising is an illusion through the lens of a falling dollar. Some of it is seasonal as nights get cooler going into winter more consumer money will go to heating fuel and less to other discretionary purchases. I opened a position several weeks ago in Southern Union (SUG) which is up significantly and probably has more up side left as winter comes along and natural gas prices go up as they do every year. Other than that I have taken some profit in the last two weeks and now I am waiting. I am considering opening a position in (HOGS) as a play on the impending chickens VS tires squabble. As usual keep your traveling stops tight and your reserve currency in gold. Good lick all and beware of government agencies offering free assistance.

Sep 16 05:30 PM

[Bill L.:]

I would note that the Dow transport sector actually ended down... and the TLT and VIX up. Things are getting interesting up here.

Sep 16 05:59 PM

[Bill L.:]

Oh now you're from Havard? I thought you were from MIT?
Did you concentrate in spamming?


On Sep 16 07:25 PM Harvard_Economics wrote:

> this market keeps going up even though the fundamentals don't justify
> it. The DJIA should be at 7000 or so. We're in yet another liquidity
> bubble that will end badly.
>
> hat tip to tinyurl.com/n854tt for the good articles

Sep 16 08:44 PM

[Ethan Chong:]

A weak buying signal from MACD indicator occured 2 days ago for INDU index, the immediate resistance level is 10,307 which is the 50% fibonacci retracement.

Sep 16 10:37 PM