Date:3/12/2010 4:45:00 PM
U.S. equity markets slowly moved higher this week, continuing their recent run amid a lack of catalysts. The NASDAQ Composite made a new 52-week high on Wednesday while the S&P 500 briefly did on Friday.
Seven of the 10 sectors that make up the index advanced, led by telecom (+2.5%), financials (+2.1%) and IT (+2.0%).
Even though some sessions experienced volatility -- afternoon sell-offs Tuesday and Wednesday followed by an afternoon spike Thursday -- there were no sizable moves.
A lack of catalysts was the reason, particularly a thin economic calendar. The only release of note was Friday's Advance Retail Sales report. The headline number was mixed, coming in at a better-than-expected 0.3% in February (consensus -0.2%), but seeing a downward revision in January to 0.1% (prior 0.5%). But the core figure came in much better than expected at 0.8% (consensus 0.1%).
Equity futures spiked on the report, but after setting highs shortly after the open, gave up those gains and traded sideways for the remainder of the session.
In fact, the biggest move all week probably occurred in the currency market on Friday. The euro spiked to its best level against the dollar since Feb. 17 on the back of much better-than-expected industrial production data from the eurozone -- January 1.7% (consensus 0.6%), December revised to 0.6% from -1.7% -- and Goldman Sachs telling investors to buy the European currency.
The bond market had an impressive week. The U.S. Treasury's longer-term auctions continued to see very strong demand, as it was able to sell $74 bln in 3-, 10- and 30-year Notes and Bonds at lower-than-expected yields. Municipal markets also saw successful offerings from the state of California and the city of Detroit, while
Bank of America (BAC),
DirecTV (DTV), GMAC and
Medtronic (MDT) raised money in the corporate market.
Looking ahead to next week, the economic calendar is much more full. Monday brings Industrial Production and the TIC data, where China's holdings of U.S. Treasuries will be in focus. The rest of the week brings Housing Starts and Building Permits on Tuesday, PPI on Wednesday and CPI on Thursday. However, the biggest event will be from the Federal Reserve, as the FOMC policy directive is due out Tuesday afternoon. The Bank of Japan also has a highly-anticipated meeting that day.
| Index | Started Week | Ended Week | Change | % Change | YTD % |
| DJIA | 10566.20 | 10624.69 | 58.49 | 0.6 | 1.9 |
| Nasdaq | 2326.35 | 2367.66 | 41.31 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| S&P 500 | 1138.70 | 1149.99 | 11.29 | 1.0 | 3.1 |
| Russell 2000 | 666.02 | 676.59 | 10.57 | 1.6 | 8.2 |
