Stock Market News for December 03, 2009

Stocks held on to previous session’s gains as an upbeat assessment of the economy from the Federal Reserve overshadowed a decline in banking and energy shares.  The Dow Jones industrial average, struggling to find direction, slipped from its 14-month high as investors turned their focus towards Friday’s monthly jobs report. 

Meanwhile, the Fed said in its Beige Book report that the economy was showing modest signs of revival across US as consumer spending increased.  However, the report noted labor market conditions remained weak and commercial real estate markets showed weakness.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 19 points, or 0.2%, to 10,452.68.  The broad based S&P 500 index ended the session little changed and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite advanced 9 points, or 0.4%, to 2,185.03.  Two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange on volume of 1.03 billion shares.

An increased 2010 price forecast from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - Analyst Report) sent gold prices to a fresh high of $1212 per troy ounce.  The greenback gained 0.2% against a basket of currencies.  Crude prices declined 2.3% on a surprise strong build in weekly stockpile.

This morning's futures suggest Wall Street would open with gains following yesterday's news that Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Analyst Report) plans to repay the entire $45 billion in bailout funds over the next few days. 

Of the ten S&P500 industry sectors, only the oil and gas group ended in the red yesterday.  Oil and gas shares declined 0.8% after a government report revealed a 2.1 million barrel build in crude stockpiles.  Financials also showed fatigue but manage to end in the green, adding only 0.04%.  Regional banks showed strength on a Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS - Snapshot Report) sector upgrade to "overweight," anticipating most of the majors no longer face additional capital raising needs.  SunTrust (NYSE:STI - Analyst Report) was raised to "outperform," while BB&T’s (NYSE:BBT - Analyst Report) rating was lifted to "neutral."

According to comScore data, online spending rose 5% to $887 million on "Cyber Monday." Shares in Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN - Analyst Report) rose 2.7% in yesterday's trade. However, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT - Analyst Report), off 0.3%, announced another round of discounts - this time in videogames - sending shares in GameStop (NYSE:GME - Analyst Report) down 8.2%. 

Read the full analyst report on GS

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Read the full analyst report on CS

Read the full analyst report on STI

Read the full analyst report on BBT

Read the full analyst report on AMZN

Read the full analyst report on WMT

Read the full analyst report on GME