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The stock market wasn’t held back by the news of the indictment of Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. The Dow gained 172 points, the Nasdaq was up 26 points and the S&P 500 added 19.51 points. Our Buy List edged out the broader market by gaining 1.73% to the S&P 500’s 1.65%.

The S&P 500 rose almost the exact percentage as it did on Monday. The market’s volatility recently hit some of its lowest levels in years, but that may be changing. The S&P didn’t have one daily change that was greater than 1.4% from May through September, but today was the fifth such move in October. Donald Luskin has more thoughts on volatility.

Our big winner today was Frontier Airlines (FRNT), which soared higher, but gave back some of its gains to close up 8.3%. Although Stryker (SYK) and Biomet (BMET) had good days today, some of our medical device stocks like Varian (VAR) and Respironics (RESP) were laggards. Progressive (PGR) became our latest insurance stock to hit a new 52-week high.

Outside our Buy List, Business Week looks at the growing mess at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO). Overstock.com’s CEO takes the blame for his company’s lousy quarter. Lastly, I was struck by this line: “The economists at Merrill Lynch figure that 40 percent of after-tax personal income is now absorbed by a combination of (rising) health care, energy and interest expenses. That leaves 60 percent to make the house and car payments and pay for life's little extras – such as groceries.” I guess consumers are becoming more and more like General Motors (GM). (H/T: The Kirk Report).

Posted by edelfenbein at October 28, 2005 4:58 PM