Markets In Day-Long Rebound After Lower Open

The resiliency of this market cannot be overstated. The loser lines are crowded with traders - self included - who have called tops recently, and calls for a pullback can be heard from Wall Street to San Diego. The market, however, will have none of it. After falling on Friday and Monday, stocks have staged a remarkable turnaround, erasing most of the losses from the prior two sessions, when the Dow reached a 10-month high at 9398.

What had investors concerned at the open was a serious downdraft in the Shanghai (China) index, which has lost 20% of its value over recent days. The Dow was down 87 points in the opening minutes, but continued to climb from there, eventually turning positive just before noon and making the day's highs just after 1:00 pm. While the plight of Chinese stocks is usually not a market mover, that was the official line, until traders took a breath and reconsidered, especially in light of the fact that the Shanghai index was up more than 100% from recent lows prior to the pullback.

A little give-back was probably baked into the Chinese prices in the first place and profit-taking accounted for much of the selling.

Dow 9,279.16, +61.22 (0.66%)
NASDAQ 1,969.24, +13.32 (0.68%)
S&P 500 996.46, +6.79 (0.69%)
NYSE Composite 6,479.28, +42.21 (0.66%)

Today's internals were decidedly bullish, with advancing issues besting decliners, 3923-2456. New highs beat out new lows once again, notching a 77-51 advantage. Volume was actually a bit more agitated than the past few days.

NYSE Volume 1,026,465,000
NASDAQ Volume 1,995,397,000

Oil was a big winner, as energy stocks led the market after release of government data showed a shrinkage in supplies of some 8.40 million barrels in US stockpiles. Crude for September delivery rose a whopping $3.45, to $72.42, while the price of an ouce of gold gained $5.60, to $944.80. Silver continued to close lower, losing 9 cents to $13.88.

There will be some poorer people in the US after the IRS struck a deal with UBS to disclose the identities of more than 4400 people for whom the bank had managed private Swiss bank accounts.

Now, there's some news even the most stoic actuary can appreciate.