- Commentary -

October 6, 2009 (FinancialWire) (By Philip Holmes) — Financial stocks such as Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) led stocks higher on Monday. Investors got a promising forecast on the sector’s earnings potential.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished at 9,599.75, up 112.08 points, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 15.25 points on the trading day, to close at 1,040.46. The Nasdaq composite index rose 20.04 points, to 2,068.15.

Investors were pleased by Goldman Sachs analyst Richard Ramsden, who turned sweet on large banks, raising his coverage view from neutral to attractive. Among the biggest beneficiaries: Wells Fargo, whose stock rose 6.9% on the day.

U.S. services also got a boost after the Institute for Supply Management’s nonmanufacturing index rose to 50.9 for September. Anything above 50 signals confidence.

Are investors waiting for big dips in stock prices? BusinessWeek’s David Bogoslaw examined the question, pointing out that, since the S&P 500 hit an intraday peak of 1,080.15 on September 23, “a wave of disappointing economic data has spooked investors.” The worst of that concerned jobs, or the lack thereof.

Bogoslaw finds that the gloomy data helps reinforce a “buy the dips” mentality, in which investors, “will wait for bigger dips than the 1% or 2% daily declines they were being enticed by a few weeks ago.”

[Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=philip+holmes to see more commentaries by Philip Holmes.]

FirstAlert(tm) “Money Index” is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ/AMEX 25 Most Actives and NYSE/NASDAQ/AMEX greatest Percentage Losers and Percentage Winners (weighted against pure monetary loss/gain) indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing, as well as the general focus of the market. Of the Most Actives, last session’s trading showed 22 advancers versus 3 decliners. Volume leaders were led by  Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) trading 44,999,800 shares closing at $4.67 (up 3.3 %), Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) trading 37,725,728 shares closing at $9.09 (up 18.8%) and the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 (NASDAQ: QQQQ) trading 37,213,130 shares closing at $41.21 (down 0.8%). Of last session’s Greatest Percentage Losers, stocks taking the greatest monetary losses were led by Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ) trading on volume of 8,621,723 shares (losing $71.7 million), Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) trading on volume of 150,948 shares (losing $65.4 million) and MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) trading on volume of 2,245,400 shares (losing $59.0 million). Of last session’s Greatest Percentage Winners, stocks making the greatest monetary gains were led by DepoMed Inc. (NASDAQ: DEPO) trading on volume of 1,259,915 shares (gaining $61.5 million), Radio One Inc. (NASDAQ: ROIAK) trading on volume of 229,420 shares (gaining $41.8 million) and AVI Biopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII) trading on volume of 4,682,762 shares (gaining $30.8 million). [Go to http://www.financialwire.net/?s=%22%27Money+Index%27+Synopsis for all the most recent FirstAlert(tm) "Money Index" Synopses.]

The FirstAlert(tm) Economics Calendar lists Weekly Chain Store Sales (8:55 a.m.), Treasury auctions 3-year notes (1 p.m.).

The FirstAlert(tm) Events Calendar showcases IRM Annual Investor Day; KSU @ Progressive Railroading RailTrends Conference; MNKD, AVII, ATHN, CADX @ JMP Securities Healthcare Focus Conference; NBR @ Deutsche Bank Fall Energy Conference; OKE and OKE Partners Investor Conference; TDW, CHK, SHAW, PTEN @ Johnson Rice Energy Conference.

FirstAlert(tm) Website of the Day: http://www.thorheyerdahl.org/

Quote of the Day: “We must respect the other person’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.” H. L. Mencken

Today is: Mad Hatter Day.

Happy Birthday: King Wenceslaus III, Matteo Ricci, Jenny Lind, George Westinghouse, Helen Wills Moody, Thor Heyerdahl, Britt Ekland.

Today in History: Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in 1600 in Florence. The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead was ignited a little after midnight in 1854, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds of injured. The Naval War College of the United States Navy was founded in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1884. The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie, debuted in 1927. Bill Sianis and his pet billy goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series. LSD was declared illegal in 1966 in the United States. New Premier Hua Guofeng ordered the arrest in 1976 of the Gang of Four and their associates, putting an end to the Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China. American singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw married in 1996 after touring on their Spontaneous Combustion Tour.

[FirstAlert(tm) was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information. The opinions expressed in FirstAlert(tm) do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.]

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