Crunching the Numbers
Dow's four-week win streak continues as it surpassed the 8000-point mark for the first time since late November of 2008 !
The Dow [.IDU] rosed in good fashion at +39.51 points (+0.50%) to 8017.59; as the Nasdaq [.IXIC] had the BEST WEEK EVER, with +19.24 (+1.20%) at 1621.87 !!!
Stocks closed out a week that began with a wicked selloff and turned to a historic move higher on a fairly quiet note.
The major averages ended positive, following tumult that saw a major accounting change and the indexes posting gains not seen in more than 70 years.
Bank stocks pared their losses after spending the morning lower, a day after critical changes to accounting rules known as mark-to-market lifted the entire market. Internet companies helped lead a late-afternoon bounce that saw the Nasdaq tech barometer close with a more than 1 percent gain and the Standard & Poor's 500 break the 840 technical barrier.
Sobering news on employment and a lower reading in business activity had sent stocks negative earlier, but volume was anemic through the day and the averages moved little after noon. Data showed the economy shed 663,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate climbed to 8.5 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has posted post its biggest four-week gain in 75 years as analysts are talking about an end to the bear market.
"Short- to intermediate-term I'd have to say I'm probably positive," said Matthew Tuttle, president of Tuttle Wealth Management in Stamford, Conn. "The numbers are ugly but everyone expected them to be ugly--they're not uglier than we thought they were going to be. At least in the short to intermediate term we probably have seen a low."
Some pullback from the week's high was expected Friday as profit-takers recovered some of the massive losses the market has seen in the past 18 months.
"I think the rally got a little ahead of itself here," Art Cashin, director of floor operations at UBS, told CNBC. "There are certain aspects about this that still say, 'bear market rally.' It was heavily led by the most-shorted stocks."
Technology showed the most strength as the broader market struggled.
Elsewhere in government, Congress has approved President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget that includes massive spending increases in health care, education and energy.
In other markets, copper futures rose above $2 a pound for the first time since November as fund managers began moving back into the metal. At the same time, Treasury prices continued to fall as risk appetite gained, sending the 10-year note a full point lower.
Market breadth was positive, with gainers beating losers 2 to 1 as 1.48 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Dow (.IDU) is up +3.10% for the week, and still down -8.65% for the year. The Nasdaq (.IXIC) is up +4.96% for the week, and also up +2.84% for the year. Which means, the markets were posted dramatically not seen in more than 70 years !
Peter Madoff Is In Court Today !!!
By AARON LUCCHETTI
MINEOLA, N.Y. – Peter Madoff under a new stipulation on an asset freeze can spend up to $10,000 per month for living expenses, including mortgage loans and insurance premiums.
The judge in the case Friday accepted the new stipulation, according to a court official.
Lawyers for Peter Madoff and a law student who wanted to extend a freeze on Mr. Madoff's assets had presented an agreement to Judge Stephen Bucaria in a suburban New York court Friday morning.
But the judge initially declined to accept it, saying it needed to be changed in both form and substance.
Judge Bucaria had said he was concerned about the extent of his jurisdiction, especially given that U.S. prosecutors were also handling many of the same issues in the federal investigation of the Madoff case, in which Peter Madoff's brother, Bernard Madoff, has pleaded guilty to perpetrating a massive Ponzi scheme.
"The agreement has serious omissions," the judge said earlier.
The hearing followed a decision by Judge Bucaria from a week ago to temporarily freeze the assets of Peter Madoff. The lawsuit was brought by a Brooklyn Law School student who claims he lost nearly $500,000 in the case. The issue at Friday's hearing was about imposing a more-permanent freeze as the law student pursues recovery.
The lawsuit alleges that Peter Madoff served as sole trustee between 2003 and 2008 for a trust established for Andrew Ross Samuels in 1997 by his grandfather, Martin J. Joel Jr., and breached his fiduciary duty to the trust.
Peter Madoff, as chief rules-compliance officer of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, "had full knowledge that it was a fraudulent Ponzi-scheme and nothing more than an unprecedented fraud," the lawsuit said. Peter Madoff hasn't been accused of wrongdoing in the alleged fraud.
A lawyer for him has said his client didn't know about the fraud.
Peter Madoff took the stand, and took an oath to accept the stipulation. He was wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and brown striped tie.
For more on the Bernard Madoff "Scam of the Century", please visit the Special Section of The Wall Street Journal .
Job Losses Grow, But More See Signs The Worse Is Over
When it comes to job losses in this recession, March may end up being the cruelest month.
“It almost can’t get any worse,” says economist David Jones of DMJ Advisors.
Friday's jobs report showed that a wide range of employers eliminated a total of 663,000 jobs last month, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent, the highest since late 1983.
