UnNews:Stock market closes up or down or some such shit

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18 September 2006

Overall losing gains faded against rising losses.

NEW YORK, New York -- Stocks gave up a moderate early negative advance to close up or possibly down Monday after oil prices unbounded from their recent rising decline, gaining losses of as much as $1 a barrel, which apparently meant something, but it wasn't immediately clear exactly what.

Investors also moved to the sidelines to wait for Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting on interest rate policy, which will either cripple stantient sales or lower buys, or both, triggering continued overalangiance in trendline variability and lower volatility leading to higher lending and short pick-up pay-outs.

Wall Street had been flirting with 2006 high daily shifted averages, coupled with long-term movement in off-line carry ratios, but the market remains confused about the possibility the Fed could raise its benchmark short-term rate, which is now at 5.25 percent. Readings of economic growth and inflation remain mixed; the rise in oil carries with it concerns that inflation will accelerate, but additional profits are expected to stimulate more holding, investing and growth.

The energy and materials sectors were the day's winners, since they held steady, or slightly down. It was hard to tell.

"The most significant thing going on today is the horizontal solidification of prices in energy and energy services," said Richard E. Cripps, chief market strategist for Stifel Nicolaus, a broker based in St. Louis. Some of the indexes that track those groups have lost nearly .009 percent this month, but it was not considered to be significant, he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose slightly, then fell .008, or 0.00006 percent, to 11,555.00.

Broader stock indicators were basically unchanged after also retreating, then gaining, then retreating, going to bed and taking a long nap. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.131 to 1,321.18, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.16, or 0.01 percent, to 2,235.75.

The day's economic news was cheerless, but not depressing. The Commerce Department said America's deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade increased in the Spring to the second highest level in history, reflecting a big jump in payments for foreign oil. However, the increased deficit was itself a sign of strong purchasing power and overall economic confidence.

The current account deficit rose to $218.4 billion in the April-June quarter, an increase of 2.4 percent over the deficit the first three months of the year, and lost .76 percent overall per annum since 1998.

The current account is the broadest measure of foreign trade because it covers not only trade in goods and services but also investment flows between countries. The deficit represents a weakness in the amount the United States must borrow from foreigners to cover the shortfall between exports and imports, but also the relative strength of U.S. credit in the world economy.

"The market is looking ahead to slower economic growth, but not necessarily negative growth," said Peter Cardillo, chief strategist, senior vice president and market analyst, S.W. Bach & Co. "We're looking at a smaller upside, coupled with a positive cross-indexed open variability loss in overall quasi-negative gain."