Stocks soaring as upbeat data, and a stabilizing oil trade, fuel markets higher. Is this rally for real, or just more short-covering? Yahoo Finance’s Nicole Sinclair gives us her take on all the market action.
FBI Director James Comey and Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell take the stand on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers give them an earful over the scandal erupting with hacking the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.
Winners and losers
Stocks missing out on the party today include SunEdison sliding after the solar firm delayed its 10K due to an internal investigation into the company’s finances, Marathon Oil shares down big after it announced a secondary offering of 135 million shares of common stock, and Tesla Motors slipping after Citron Research revealed it was shorting the stock, claiming supply and demand issues will send it $100 by year end.
Stocks running with the bulls today include Ford on strong February auto sales, casino operator Las Vegas Sands on better than expected Macau gaming results, and Amazon – shares jumping after Cowen analysts published a survey showing strong early adoption of the company’s Prime Now service.
Pulse of the U.S. Economy
A better than expected ISM manufacturing print goosed markets today, but will a strengthening US economy power stocks forward into the spring? Joining the Final Round today for more on this topic is Michelle Girard, managing director and chief US economist at RBS.
Looking ahead
- We will get a possible peek into Friday’s jobs data with ADP’s private employment report for February. The street’s expecting around 185,000 jobs created, less than than January’s figure of 205,000 jobs.
- Another test for crude oil – the EIA will report weekly U-S oil stockpiles. Last week it reported 3.5 million barrels of supply.
- Finally – American astronaut Scott Kelly, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to earth after spending a year in space at the International Space Station. The goal of their yearlong expedition was to better understand how the human body adapts to the harsh conditions of space.
