Stocks Erase Gains After Trichet Comments Published: Thursday, 25 Mar 2010 | 5:20 PM ET By: Cindy Perman The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended slightly lower Thursday after comments from ECB President Trichet gave the dollar a boost. Major U.S. Indexes .DJIA 10841.21 5.06 +0.05% 0 .NCOMP 2397.41 -1.3501 -0.06% 0 .SPX 1165.73 -1.99 -0.17% 0 The Dow held on to the tiniest gain â ending up about 5 points â while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 finished lower. Trichet told a French TV network that Greece having to go to the IMF for aid was a "very, very bad" thing and that the European Union isn't doing enough. Those comments sent the dollar soaring against the euro and commodity prices lower. Material and energy stocks were the day's worst performers. Banks were the day's top performer, with Bank of America [BAC 17.74 0.17 (+0.97%) ] near the top of the Dow and Citigroup [C 4.27 0.12 (+2.89%) ] up nearly 3 percent, after Fed Chairman Bernanke pledged to keep rates low in congressional testimony. And the U.S. Treasury is reportedly mulling the sale of its stake in Citigroup. The U.S. economy still needs help from the Fed's low-interest-rate policy but the central bank is prepared to begin removing its extraordinary stimulus measures as economic expansion "matures," Bernanke told the House financial-services committee in a hearing about the Fed's exit strategy. (Click here to watch a live-streaming video of the hearing.) "Banks are leading the way because they like what Bernanke is saying," said Dave Rovelli, managing director of equity trading at Canaccord Adams. "He's saying everything friendly to the marketplace, not spooking anybody," he said. Plus, banks are projecting better earnings, with more assets â and better valued assets â on their books now, Rovelli said. And, of course, as the quarter winds down, traders and fund managers are pouring money into rallies so they don't end the quarter underperforming the market. Stocks had been sharply higher for much of the day, with the Dow up over 100 points, amid some encouraging earnings news. Best Buy [BBY 42.66 1.48 (+3.59%) ] shares gained 3.6 percent after the company smashed fourth-quarter earnings expectations. This came after Adobe [ADBE 35.86 -0.65 (-1.78%) ] and General Mills [GIS 71.15 -1.03 (-1.43%) ] delivered results earlier this week that also beat expectations. Qualcomm shares [QCOM 42.18 1.99 (+4.95%) ] jumped 5 percent after the company, which makes chips for cellphones and other gadgets, raised its sales and earnings forecast for the second quarter, citing strength from licensing revenue among the reasons. Campbell Soup [CPB 34.87 -0.37 (-1.05%) ] CEO Douglas Conant offered some upbeat comments on the soup market. Conant told the Wall Street Journal soup sales are picking up thanks to the company's promotional efforts. US-traded shares of Lululemon [LULU 39.46 3.41 (+9.46%) ] shot up 10 percent after the Canadian athletic-clothing retailer delivered strong results, with revenue up 55 percent, helped by its growing line of running gear. Oracle [ORCL 26.10 0.34 (+1.32%) ] shares rose ahead of the software giant's earnings, due out after the closing bell. ConAgra [CAG 24.94 -1.16 (-4.44%) ], however, fell after matching estimates. Earnings season gets into full swing in a couple of weeks. Art Hogan, the chief market analyst at Jefferies, notes that right now is typically when companies issue profit warnings and the fact that there haven't been many warnings is a good sign for earnings â and the market. "I really feel like this market is on a path higher in the near term," Hogan said. "The first quarter is about to wrap up and there are virtually no preannouncements from Corporate America â that means earnings are are going to be much better," Hogan said. "I think there's another 10 percent to the upside by year end," Hogan said. As the health-care bill heads back to the House for a few, ahem, corrections, companies are starting to talk about how much the new legislation is going to cost them. Farm equipment maker Deere [DE 60.20 -0.29 (-0.48%) ] said it expects its after-tax expenses to jump by $150 million this year due to a one-time charge related to its retiree benefits. This followed a similar warning by Caterpillar [CAT 62.14 0.08 (+0.13%) ] and AKSteel [DE 60.20 -0.29 (-0.48%) ]. Essentially, the health-care legislation will now tax a federal subsidy on retiree health benefits. Industrial companies may be the hardest hit as they tend to have the most retirees. In the morning's economic news, initial jobless claims dropped by 14,000 last week, more than expected. And mortgage rates ticked higher, with the average on the 30-year fixed up to 4.99 last week, from 4.96 in the previous week. Treasury prices continued to slide after another weak auction: The seven-year saw a high yield of 3.374 percent and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.61. Rovelli said he thinks tech is going to lead the way in this first-half rally, but that the market will peak sometime in the second quarter or early third as the realization sets in that taxes on the wealthy are going up â and they're going to keep going up â given all the U.S. debt piling up, plus a lot of adjustable-rate mortgages piling up. Volume was slightly above average for a change: About 10 billion shares changed hands on the three major exchanges. Decliners outpaced advancers, 3 to 2, on the Big Board. Still to Come: THURSDAY: Toyota class-action hearing; seven-year auction; Earnings from Oracle after the bell FRIDAY: Final read on Q4 GDP; consumer sentiment; Fed's Warsh, Bullard speak
anybody else thinks it is possible we will repeat Jan 2010 feat of filling a gap much lower than the top in 2 days? Dec: gap Dec-Jan: a major run-up Jan-21 and 22: 2 days erase 1 month of gains so far we have: early March: gap March: a major run-up (top Mar-25???) Late March: a few days to erase 4-5% advance????