NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Stocks rallied for a second session Thursday, boosted by falling oil prices and ongoing relief that the presidential election has passed without incident.
The Dow Jones industrial average (up 177.71 to 10,314.76, Charts) rallied 1.75 percent, closing at its highest level in about seven weeks. Upbeat news out of Altria Group bolstered the good cheer, adding 31 points to the Dow's gain.
The Standard & Poor's 500 (up 18.47 to 1,161.67, Charts) index rose around 1.6 percent, closing at its highest point since March 2002.
The Nasdaq composite (up 19.30 to 2,023.63, Charts) added almost 1 percent, at its highest point since the end of June.
U.S. light crude oil for December delivery tumbled $2.06 to settle at $48.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday, a decline of 4 percent. It marked the first close below $50 a barrel in more than a month.
"I think the oil prices (being) off helps," said David Briggs, head of equity trading at Federated Investors.
"But I think it's mostly relief that all these concerns this year about the conventions, the election are now past," he added. "I think we're seeing people who were on hold, waiting for the outcome of the election, now stepping in."
Friday brings the week's biggest economic event, the October jobs report. Employers are expected to have added 175,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, according to Briefing.com estimates. That would be up from 96,000 jobs added in September. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 5.4 percent.
"This is the first one after the election, and I think it will be seen as more indicative of economic growth than previous ones, which were looked at in terms of the election," said John Hughes, market analyst at Shields & Co.
"As long as the payrolls number at least meets, it won't be a big event for the market," Hughes said.
Stocks had rallied sharply Wednesday on news that Bush won a second term in office, ending months of uncertainty. Following that advance, the major gauges had stalled out a bit Thursday morning, before resuming their rally in the afternoon.
However, stocks have been slowly recovering over the last week or so, even before President Bush's win.
"We've seen a technical improvement lately, with the indexes breaking out of the recent downtrend," Hughes said. "We think there's going to be an uptrend in the market through the end of the year, although it certainly won't be without hiccups."
On the move
Gains were broad Thursday, with 26 out of 30 Dow components advancing.
The falling oil prices had a positive impact on all kinds of basic materials stocks, and sectors that immediately benefit from lower energy prices, such as airlines, truckers and others.
The Dow Jones Transportation (up 30.81 to 2,080.09, Charts) index rose just under 2 percent.
Also firing up the blue chips was Altria Group (up $4.23 to $54.23, Research), which rose 8.4 percent after the company's chief executive said the Dow component may break itself up into two or three separate entities.
The CEO also said Altria was on track to hit the high end of its 2004 earnings forecast, which predicted a profit in the range of $4.55 to $4.60 a share.
In addition to Altria, other big Dow gainers included 3M (up $2.79 to $78.08, Research), Alcoa (up $1.10 to $33.20, Research) and General Motors (up $1.20 to $39.50, Research).
A variety of big-cap techs rose, including Microsoft (up $0.53 to $29.00, Research) and Hewlett-Packard (up $0.53 to $19.53, Research).
Among other techs, chips gear makers were weaker after a Banc of America Securities downgrade.
The firm cut Applied Materials (up $0.12 to $16.24, Research) and KLA Tencor (down $0.18 to $44.84, Research) to "sell" from "neutral." Lam Research (down $0.32 to $25.38, Research) was cut to "neutral" from "buy."
Qualcomm (down $1.80 to $38.07, Research) fell 4.5 percent, following its warning late Wednesday that sales and earnings in the current quarter will miss estimates. The wireless technology developer also said 2005 earnings would be hurt due to higher operating expenses and a higher tax rate.
The outlook overshadowed Qualcomm's higher-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.
Among other movers, Andrx (down $3.07 to $16.59, Research) fell 15.6 percent, after reporting weaker third-quarter earnings that missed estimates. The generic drugmaker cited lower sales and profit margins. Following the news, First Albany downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy."
Retail mixed; econ news upbeat
A slew of retailers reported October sales at stores open a year or more.
Teen apparel retailers did particularly well, with highlights including Abercrombie & Fitch (up $3.00 to $42.17, Research), which saw sales rise 11 percent, sending its shares higher.
Others were less upbeat, with specialty retailer Hot Topic (down $0.77 to $20.06, Research) reporting October sales fell 3.8 percent, when analysts expected sales to rise 1 percent. Shares tumbled.
No. 1 retailer Wal-Mart Stores (up $1.78 to $56.26, Research) said October sales rose 2.8 percent, in line with its previously announced estimate and at the bottom end of its earlier range. The company also said third-quarter sales would come in at the high end of its previous range. Shares gained around 3.3 percent.
Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers beat decliners three to one on volume of 1.77 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, winners topped losers three to two on volume of 1.81 billion shares.
The number of Americans filing new weekly claims for unemployment fell to 332,000 last week, the Labor Department reported. That was down from a revised 351,000 the previous week. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought claims would fall to 340,000.
A separate report showed that business productivity slowed in the third quarter but was nonetheless faster than had been expected.
Treasury prices were little changed, with the 10-year note yield at 4.07 percent, unchanged from late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in the opposite directions.
The dollar fell against the yen and euro.
COMEX gold rose $5 to settle at $430.80 an ounce.
|
