Stocks ended moderately higher on Wall Street on Tuesday, regaining much of Monday’s losses.
The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.5 percent, the Dow Jones industrial average added 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.5 percent.
The benchmark S.P. 500 last week set a new closing high, but has thus far been unable to reach its intraday record of 1,576.09 points, an important psychological level for investors. It closed at 1,570.25 Tuesday.
While moves may be limited this week leading up to the release on Friday of the American unemployment report for March, investors will be looking to the latest economic data for signs of economic strength last month.
“We’ve had significant pockets of strength in the data, but also some weakness,” said Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, N.Y. “If we can see some broad-based expansion of growth, that would be very beneficial for markets.”
A weak reading on American manufacturing sparked a decline in Monday’s session, though other indicators have pointed to a strengthening economy and helped push both the Dow and S.P. to record highs last week.
European shares bounced back after a two-week slide as merger-and-acquisition activity helped lift sentiment.
The S.P. is up 10 percent so far this year, while the Dow is up nearly 12 percent. While investors view market momentum as positive, many are also calling for a pullback, given the size and swiftness of recent gains.
“We take money off the table on days when we see rallies of about 1 percent,” Mr. Pursche said. “We think things are getting overstretched.”
Hewlett-Packard slumped 5.3 percent to $22.08, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the Dow component, saying it expected the company’s earnings power to come under pressure. Goldman has a $16 price target on the stock, which implies downside of more than 30 percent from H.P.’s Monday closing price.
BGC Partners late Monday said it would sell its eSpeed platform to Nasdaq OMX Group for $750 million in cash. Shares of BGC soared 47 percent.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/business/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss