Pre-quake:
- With a 5% runup since an intraday low touched eight days ago, stocks have worked themselves back to a trading range they occupied for almost three weeks prior to the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear power plant trifecta in Japan. Bulls had a lot to like about Thursday: the rally was broad-based, driven by tech, large-caps and financials, while oil prices were about as inconsequential as they’ve been in some time — other than the fact they didn’t move higher. With that, pretty much all of the beaten-down names got a free day, gambling and autos were among the best-performing sectors. Bonds were down, pushing they 10-year note yield back to 3.4% (another pre-quake level). Gold sold off, while silver set another 30-ish-year closing high, although it did retreat from its highs of the day.
- After the closing bell, shares of Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) plunged nearly 12% in after-hours trading after the BlackBerry maker warned that its first-quarter profit and revenue would be below analysts’ consensus estimate. Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) gained 2.6% after beating fiscal third-quarter earnings estimates, raising its quarterly dividend, and guiding the Street higher for its fourth-quarter profit.
- On Friday, you’ll get the third estimate on fourth-quarter real GDP, and a March report on consumer confidence.
OUT THERE SOMEWHERE:
- Out of work? New York Times (NYSE:NYT) publisher expects you’ll try to steal his online content.
- You had me at legion of grunts.
- What would a Portugal rescue cost?
- Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE:MS) not-so-little secret.
- You could see how bottled water in Tokyo would be in demand. You could also see it running out.
- Silver doesn’t necessarily seem played out.
- Did file-sharing destroy the music industry? Not really.
- Why you’d best be in energy stocks.
- A lotta people said buy Japan now. A lotta people did just that.
- Calpers may be a little too bullish.
- If you had to bet on one — Groupon or Facebook?
- A head-to-head ETF comparison tool.
