STOCKS RALLY AGAIN: Here’s What You Need To Know (DIA, SPY, QQQ, HLF)

By admin on January 10, 2013

Awesome High Fives

Stocks had another strong day.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 13,463, +72.6, +0.5 percent
S&P 500: 1,471, +10.8, +0.6 percent
NASDAQ: 3,120, +14.0, +0.4 percent

And now the top stories:

It was a relatively quiet day for news.
On the economic front, weekly initial jobless claims came in at 371k, up from last week’s reading of 367k. Economists were looking for the number to fall to 365k. So, the number was a tad disappointing. “More generally, the claims data can be volatile this time of year because of the difficulty of seasonal adjustment around the holidays,” notes UBS economist Kevin Cummins. “It will be several more weeks before the claims data are free of influence from the holiday seasonal factors. Thus, we attach little weight to possible swings for the next couple of weeks.”
If there were a reason to be bullish today, then it was last night Chinese trade report. Exports surged 14.1 percent year-over-year in December, which was well ahead of the 5 percent gain forecasted by economists. Considering China is the world’s second largest economy, this is good news for everyone.
The drama surrounding Herbalife continues to heat up. Last month, hedge fund hot shot Bill Ackman announced that he was short the stock, accusing the company of being a pyramid scheme. However, Herbalife fired back today with their defense.
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