Todays Markey New

Overview:

·         Equity Levels: SP500 ends down 2.3 points/0.2% at 1103 (well off the lows of the session at 1086).  The R2K ekes out a small gain (barely higher).  The Nazz finished down ~1 point. 

·         Market Update – stocks opened weaker this morning, weighed down by the: 1) poor eco #s (durable goods and jobless claims); 2) continued Greek worries (worries that budget cut measures won’t be achievable and that Moody’s/S&P could take addition action on the co’s debt); 3) some headlines about order cuts out of Asia (Mediatek, etc); 4) headlines that the SEC was investigating Goldman’s involvement in the Greek debt crisis.  However, stocks started to lift off the lows around noon (around the same time Europe closed) and staged a very impressive rally around ~1:40pmET. 

Some of the fundamental items cited for the rally:

1) technically never violated the 1085 level;

2) commentary that the weak eco #s today may have been skewed by weather and seasonal items (Bernanke acknowledged in his testimony that weather may have hurt jobless claims);

3) some window dressing into month-end (tomorrow is the last trading session of the month);

4) speculation (mentioned on CNBC and elsewhere) that AAPL could unveil a 4:1 stock split (an Apple spokesman only said that the co has made no such comment but didn’t make a further comment);

5) sanguine comments from the Fed’ Bullard about the inflation outlook (although nothing Bernanke didn’t day yesterday);

6) a headline on Reuters discussing how Greek banks haven’t seen a deposit outflow despite all the market worries;

7) California’s assembly passing a bill that permits the state to delay payments to programs to avoid running out of cash (the move is aimed at boosting confidence in CA muni debt – recall the state was forced to delay a bond sale earlier this week b/c this measure hadn’t passed);

8) a strong debt auction (the 7yr sale today was pretty strong).