Early in the day, it looked like the market was heading north with strong upward momentum on all indices, but the hope of a strong close for the week fizzled by 11 AM. Stocks dropped to the opening level and see-sawed for the rest of the day as a result of the quadruple witching hour — where option contracts, futures contracts, and single stock futures simultaneously expire. Overall, basic materials, financial, and energy stocks pushed the market up, while consumer and healthcare dragged. Once again, gold soared to a new record high. In the end, it wasn’t a bad week at all as U.S. stocks post a second week of solid gains, rising 2.4% as worries about European debt subside. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose marginally by +16.47 points to 10,450.64, the NASDAQ eked out a small gain of +2.64 points to 2,309.80, and the S&P 500 rose +1.47 points to 1,117.51.
Word on the Street
As the oil spill situation continues to plague the Gulf, BP (BP: Charts, News, Offers) continues to show lack of commitment with the announcement from the chairman of BP Carl-Henric Svanberg, that the CEO Tony Hayward will hand off the operations to Bob Dudley — so, Mr. Hayward is basically saying he has nothing to do with the problem and is walking away from it.
This morning, we reported that new jobless claims up sharply as layoffs persist. The latest unemployment report comes from Nevada where unemployment hits 14%, pushing it ahead of Michigan to lead the nation in joblessness.
With the crisis barely over, Citigroup (C: Charts, News, Offers) is making a bold move to raise $1.5 billion for private equity and $750 million for hedge funds this year, and another $1 billion for hedge funds in 2011. A blatant move to outsmart the U.S. government who are in the process of putting together a limit on proprietary trading, private equity, and hedge fund activities.
Gold got another boost today as investors seek safety. The price of gold was up $9.60 to $1,258.30 a troy ounce on the COMEX, after touching an intra-day record high of $1,263.70. The weekly rise of 2.3% matching the performance of equity.
Crude-oil futures settled higher on Friday as they tracked some strength in stocks and advanced 4.6% on the week.
The euro hovered near a three-week high against the dollar on Friday and headed for its best weekly gain in over a year as worries about European crisis abate.
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Quadruple Witching Hour Slows Momentum, Gold and Crude Soar
By: InvestorGuide Staff, dated June 18th, 2010Early in the day, it looked like the market was heading north with strong upward momentum on all indices, but the hope of a strong close for the week fizzled by 11 AM. Stocks dropped to the opening level and see-sawed for the rest of the day as a result of the quadruple witching hour — where option contracts, futures contracts, and single stock futures simultaneously expire. Overall, basic materials, financial, and energy stocks pushed the market up, while consumer and healthcare dragged. Once again, gold soared to a new record high. In the end, it wasn’t a bad week at all as U.S. stocks post a second week of solid gains, rising 2.4% as worries about European debt subside. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose marginally by +16.47 points to 10,450.64, the NASDAQ eked out a small gain of +2.64 points to 2,309.80, and the S&P 500 rose +1.47 points to 1,117.51.
Word on the Street
As the oil spill situation continues to plague the Gulf, BP (BP: Charts, News, Offers) continues to show lack of commitment with the announcement from the chairman of BP Carl-Henric Svanberg, that the CEO Tony Hayward will hand off the operations to Bob Dudley — so, Mr. Hayward is basically saying he has nothing to do with the problem and is walking away from it.
This morning, we reported that new jobless claims up sharply as layoffs persist. The latest unemployment report comes from Nevada where unemployment hits 14%, pushing it ahead of Michigan to lead the nation in joblessness.
With the crisis barely over, Citigroup (C: Charts, News, Offers) is making a bold move to raise $1.5 billion for private equity and $750 million for hedge funds this year, and another $1 billion for hedge funds in 2011. A blatant move to outsmart the U.S. government who are in the process of putting together a limit on proprietary trading, private equity, and hedge fund activities.
Gold got another boost today as investors seek safety. The price of gold was up $9.60 to $1,258.30 a troy ounce on the COMEX, after touching an intra-day record high of $1,263.70. The weekly rise of 2.3% matching the performance of equity.
Crude-oil futures settled higher on Friday as they tracked some strength in stocks and advanced 4.6% on the week.
The euro hovered near a three-week high against the dollar on Friday and headed for its best weekly gain in over a year as worries about European crisis abate.
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