The stock market in the United States rebounded today after suffering two days of decline. The markets benefited from the unexpected decline in retail sales, which ignited perception that the Federal Reserve would maintain the low interest rates.
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In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, Donald Selkin, a chief market strategist at National Securities commented, “I think this is a question of the bad news is good news, which is a reversal of what we had Friday when we got killed. The only reason it’s good is in policy because it throws a wet blanket over the surety of them raising rates.”
Over the past two days, the markets were negatively impacted by the increasing speculations that the central bank is close to raising the interest rates due to the continued improvement of the labor market. Investors were also concerned about the continued strength of the U.S. dollar. The currency slightly weakened today.
Selkin said, “The weakness in the market has been based on that strong dollar. The dollar’s a little weaker today so maybe that’ll help.”
[drizzle]Today, the Department of Labor reported that the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits declined by 36,000 to 289,000 for the week ended March 7. The figure shows a consistent improvement of the labor market.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 17,895.39 (+1.26%)
- S&P 500- 2,065.95 (+1.26%)
- NASDAQ- 4,893.29 (+0.89%)
- Russell 2000- 1,236.52 (+1.71%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,641.32 (-0.23%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,761.07 (+0.59%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 11,799.39 (-0.06%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 18,991.11 (+1.43%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 23,797.96 (+0.34%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 3,592.84 (+1.93%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Bon-Ton Stores surged more than 25% to $5.76 per share today. The company is the biggest gainer on NASDAQ. Bon-Ton reported net income was $71.7 million or $3.55 per diluted shares for the fourth quarter of 2014, up from $51.3 million or $3.04 per diluted share last year. Its total sales increased 3% to $942.6 million from $914.9 million in the year-ago quarter.
Intel declined more than 4% to $30.80 per share after the company reduced its revenue outlook for the first quarter due to weaker PC demand. The company is now expecting its revenue to be around $12.8 billion compared with its $13.7 billion previous estimate.
The shares of Morgan Stanley climbed more than 6% to $37.09 per share. The company announced the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems did not oppose its 2015 Capital Plan. The company’s capital plan included a $3.1 billion buyback of its common stock over the next five quarters and a dividend increase from $0.10 to $0.15 per share starting in the second quarter this year.
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