The S&P 500 Closes in on a Multi-Year High

Yesterday wound up being the market’s best day in a month. The S&P 500 finished the day just 0.75% from its highest close since 2007. Again, I’m not much of a chart reader but a lot of folks think this may be the final leg of a Triple Top.

The S&P 500 is currently up about three points this morning. The Dow is down slightly but that’s due to weakness from IBM ($IBM) which reported after yesterday’s close. The 30-year Treasury is close to breaking through 3% for the first time since September 18th. So far, 53 of the 70 S&P 500 companies that have reported have beaten estimates.

The financials continue to perform well. The Financial Sector ETF ($XLF) got as high as $16.24 today and it’s not far from $16.44 which is its 52-week high. On our Buy List, AFLAC ($AFL) has been as high as $49.98 today. Also, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has been as high as $43.35 which is another post-Whale high. The big winner is Hudson City ($HCBK) which is up nearly 5% thanks to a huge earnings beat from M&T Bank ($MTB).

Stryker ($SYK) is due to report after today’s close. Wall Street expects earnings of 98 cents per share.

Posted by on October 17th, 2012 at 10:16 am


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