Wall Street Shares Inch Higher

Wall Street inched higher on Monday as earlier weakness prompted some buying and investors pushed the Standard Poor’s 500-stock index to its highest intraday level since October 2007.

By midday, the Dow Jones industrial average and the S..P 500 were trading in positive territory, continuing last week’s rally, which took the Dow to record highs. The S.P. 500 is only about 1 percent away from its all-time closing high.

In afternoon trading, the S.P. and the Dow were both up about 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 percent higher.

Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — the CBOE Volatility Index, known as the VIX — dropped 5.5 percent to 11.90, the lowest level since April 2007.

Equities have rallied strongly since the beginning of the year, helped by signs of improvement in the economy, and pullbacks have been short lived as investors look to get into the market.

“There’s real belief in this rally,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, N.Y.

“There are lots of investors out there looking for opportunities to put more money to work in equities, and they’re using these little pullbacks we’ve had – and there haven’t been many – as purchasing opportunities.”

In the first three months of the year, the benchmark S.P. has gained nearly 9 percent.

The Dow has climbed 10 percent for the year.

Wall Street had traded slightly lower earlier in the day as Italy’s credit downgrade and disappointing Chinese economic data gave investors a reason to pause.

BlackBerry shares listed in the United States surged 11 percent after American carriers said they would soon begin selling the company’s long-delayed Z10 device. The stock shot up 11.1 percent to $14.51.

Dell shares were up 1.3 percent at $14.34 after the company agreed to give Carl Icahn a closer look at its books. The move came less than a week after the activist investor joined a growing chorus of opposition to plans by the computer maker’s founder, Michael Dell, to take the company private. Monday’s trading was above the take-private offer price of $13.65.

Genworth Financial shares jumped 6.3 percent to $10.46 after a report by Barron’s that the mortgage insurer’s stock could almost double in the next year, boosted by gains in mortgage and healthcare pricing.

In contrast, Dick’s Sporting Goods fell 10 percent to $45.53 after the retailer reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter results and gave a disappointing forecast.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/business/economy/daily-stock-market-activity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss