Perhaps we need a contest to come up with a name for what we call a stock-market day like Monday.
After all, what we saw today is sort of the normal trading session so far this year (and, frankly, earlier than that if you remember back to December’s low-volume days): a flatline start, a dip in the first hour or two, then a slow grind back to green numbers for another fresh two-and-a-half year high.
Yes, maybe every two weeks there’s a more-than-insignificant selloff just to keep us honest. But all that has meant so far is another two- or three-day delay until we see the next high for the year.
OK, OK, technically. the Dow Jones Industrial Average did not set a new two-year high on Monday — it lost 5 points to 12,268. As we mentioned last week, flat is the new down in this market, but everybody has caught onto the idea that flat is only a temporary state of being for stocks.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500, on the other hand, did post new highs for 2011, closing up, respectively, 8 points to 2817 and up 3 points to 1332.
Commodities stocks were strong on Monday, as most metal prices pushed higher. Gold and silver rose (silver by 1.8% to $30.53 an ounce), but copper also climbed 2% and strength was seen in virtually all types of mining stocks (other metals, coal), as well as the basic resources sector. Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) climbed almost 5%, as did Arch Coal (NYSE:ACI).
Oil dropped nearly 1% to $84.81 a barrel.
Despite the drop in crude prices, however, it was another tough session for airline stocks, which had rebounded in the last 10 days after hitting four-month lows earlier this month. JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU), AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR), parent of American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) all gave back about 2%.
Transportation stocks may not fare any better on Tuesday. Late Monday, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) said its first-quarter profit would badly miss expectations. The overnight delivery carrier cited the rough winter weather and higher-than-expected fuel prices.
Bonds were little changed, with the yield on the 10-year note ticking down slightly to 3.63%, but its recent rise seems to be continuing to hit housing-related stocks. Mortgage insurers had a tough session, as did the homebuilders. KB Home (NYSE:KBH) shares slumped 3%.
