Stocks finished higher again on Wednesday, leading the S&P 500 index to close above its 1300 price level for the first time since July of 2010. Major indices started the session gaining following a report that stated the IMF is looking to increase its lending firepower by $500 billion sometime before the G-20 finance ministers meeting, which is scheduled for February 25-26. This came as a welcome surprise to investors. Besides this report, there were a handful of positive announcements that would underpin the rally on Wednesday and lead the bulls to a dominant session.
Among other positive headlines were a better than expected earnings announcement from Goldman Sachs, improved U.S. Industrial Production data, and the highest NAHB Homebuilders Confidence Index reading since June of 2007.
While investors are still worried about what might come from the Greek bondholders meeting, the overwhelming positive sentiment on Wednesday was the theme of the day. The bulls steadily pushed major indices to “breakout” levels, including a significant close above 1300 on the S&P 500 for the first time in 6 months.
Moving forward, we’ll be watching what happens with the Greek bondholder meeting, as a decision is expected sometime before the end of the week. Though we’ve been talking about the “decoupling from Europe” effect that our market is going through right now, we do expect the market to pay serious attention to some of the more high profile events surrounding the crisis, such as this bondholder meeting. So, we’ll wait and see what is decided, and how significantly it affects stocks amidst this steady rally.
Close Recap: S&P 500 +1.11%, NASDAQ +1.53%, DJIA +0.78%, Midcaps +1.62%.
Have a pleasant evening.
S&P 500 - Intraday
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