US Stock Market Wrap (MAR 5, 2007)

DJIA                       12,050.41; Down 63.69 (0.53%)
NASDAQ               2,340.68; Down 27.32 (1.15%)
S&P500                1,374.11; Down 13.06 (0.94%)
10YR-Bond          4.518%; Up 0.003
NYSE Volume     3,487,356,000
NASD Volume     2,252,398,000
VIX                         18.71 (+0.10)

Keep in mind the DJIA level and S&P 500 level may not be 100% accurate as there were some saying the closing levels weren’t actually in yet.  The NYSE is still having issues.

Interestingly enough, the first-line defensive stock names didn’t fare too well today with only 6 of the 20 on the listing closing in positive territory.  Most of the names had been up today earlier, but that wasn’t in the cards.  The markets are still trying to find their ground.   Out of the 30 DJIA components, only these closed up on the day: Caterpillar (CAT), H-P (HPQ), IBM (IBM), Coca-Cola (KO), 3M (MMM), & Merck (MRK).  While these have more cyclical-oriented names (CAT, HPQ, IBM, MMM) than defensive (KO, MRK), this was still a disappointing day since we had been in positive territory and the defensive names were 15/20 up.

Every day the bullish market pundits keep talking about the great buying opportunities.  The perma-bears and those who think the bottom is falling out of the economy also seem far too pessimistic in a time when it doesn’t feel like the manner in which they are describing it.  Until we see a marked bottom in those 20 first-line defensive names it is hard to want to stand up and try to be a hero.

Jon C. Ogg
March 5, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.