The Wall Street Report: Stock Rally To 200 Points !!!

The Bulls Are Running Freely ...

The Dow is up 234 points (+ 2.94%) and Nasdaq is also up 56.39 points (+ 3.55%).
[Report as of 3:10pm EST]

It turned out to be a good Thursday for Wall Street and the stock market after a surprise preliminary earnings report from Wells Fargo & Co. sent stocks rallying more than 245 points.

This comes despite an overall disappointing group of retail sales reports most notably from the retail giant Wal-Mart.

Today’s Markets

At the 4 p.m. close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 246.27 points, or 3.14%, to 8083.38, the S&P 500 rose 31.38 points, or 3.80%, to 856.54 and the Nasdaq Composite added 61.88 points, or 3.89%, to 1652.54. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 index added 20.51 points, or 3.31%, to 639.66.

Overall, the Dow gained approximately 1% for the week - its fifth-straight week - despite a two-day slide on Monday and Tuesday.

Thursday's trading session will be the last for this week, with the bonds, commodity and stock markets closed Friday in observance of Good Friday.

Wells Fargo (WFC: 19.52, 4.64, 31.18%) was the fuel for the market's fire after the San Francisco-based bank said it sees a profit of $3 billion, 55 cents per share in the first quarter, widely topping estimates for 23 cents per share and the $2 billion profit the bank earned this time last year. Shares of Wells soared more than 30%.

The bank also said its 2008 acquisition of then-dying Wachovia Bank has "exceeded expectations" and sees charge-offs declining to $3.3 billion.

"The market was prepared for everything but positive surprises," said Ted Weisberg, a NYSE trader with Seaport Securities. "But we certainly got a positive surprise out of Wells Fargo today. It was enough to get the market to get it going."

The Wells Fargo news lifted the entire financial sector, with Citigroup (C: 3.07, 0.39, 14.55%), Bank of America (BAC: 9.66, 2.61, 37.02%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM: 32.85, 5.5, 20.11%) all posting double-digit gains out of the gate.

Enthusiasm for banking stocks overshadowed another round of bleak retail sales reports. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected same-store sales to decline by 1% last month amid the deepest recession since World War II.

The biggest drag on the Dow was the retail giant Wal-Mart (WMT: 50.47, -2.15, -4.09%), which disappointed the market by saying its same-store sales excluding fuel rose by 1.4% in March, well short of expectations for a 3.2% jump. Shares of the Arkansas-based retailer were down 5%.
Wal-Mart wasn't alone as Costco (COST: 46.9, -0.8, -1.68%), Macy's (M: 11.86, 1.53, 14.81%), Target (TGT: 39.8796, 2.2696, 6.03%), Limited Brands (LTD: 10.66, 1.07, 11.16%), Wet Seal (WTSLA: 3.93, 0.19, 5.08%) and Bebe Stores (BEBE: 7.55, 0.51, 7.24%) all posted declines in same-store sales for March. On the upside, Buckle (BKE: 36.9, 3.15, 9.33%) said same-store sales rose by a better-than-expected 14.7% last month.

But for the most part, retailers were posting positive gains in Thursday trading - with the S&P 500 retailers index up 3%.

On the economic front, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims tumbled by 20,000 last week to 654,000, the 10th straight week above the 600,000 mark. Continuing claims, which are filed by those out of work for more than one week, surged by 95,000 to 5.8 million, the highest level since data began in 1967.

Also, the government said U.S. import prices rose for the first time in eight months thanks to a jump in oil prices. The Labor Department report showed prices were up in March by 0.5%, half as much as economists expected. Excluding oil, import prices tumbled for the eight-straight month amid the global recession.

In the commodity markets, crude oil futures ended higher by $2.64 per barrel, or 5.31%, to $52.00 a barrel. Gold slipped $6.50 per ounce, or 0.73%, to $879.30.

Corporate Movers

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK: undefined, undefined, undefined%), billionaire Warren Buffett's holding company, lost its perfect "AAA" credit rating from Moody's, which cited the ongoing recession and heavy investment losses in the insurance sector. Last month Fitch Ratings similarly stripped Berkshire of its "AAA" rating.

Barclays Capital (BCS: 10.8912, 1.5212, 16.23%) announced the sale of its iShares exchange-traded funds to CVC Capital for $4.4 billion.

Morgan Stanley (MS: 25.35, 2.73, 12.07%) is expected to take a higher-than-expected first-quarter hit of $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion on a rebound in its bond prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. While rising bond prices are generally thought of as a positive, the write downs add to problems in real-estate and other business lines and could send Morgan to its first back-to-back quarterly losses since it went public 23 years ago, the newspaper reported.

Toyota Motors (TM: 79.2336, 3.4936, 4.61%) plans to overhaul its U.S. operations by combining engineering, manufacturing and sales under one exec, the Journal reported.

General Motors (GM: 2.01, 0.081, 4.2%) could receive $100 million to $200 million for its Hummer brand, which is still being bid on by three companies, including private-equity firms and wealthy individuals, Reuters reported. Of the three remaining bidders, which don't include any auto makers, only one is from the U.S., the wire service reported.

Wells Fargo (WFC: 19.52, 4.64, 31.18%) is likely to hold onto Evergreen Investments, the money-management unit inherited when Wells acquired Wachovia last year, the New York Post reported. However, Wells Fargo is likely to keep a smaller version of Wachovia's investment bank on hand, the newspaper reported.

World Markets

European indexes were solidly in the green, led by a 1.05% jump for Germany's DAX and a 0.42% rally for France's CAC 40.

Amid news of a Japanese stimulus package, Asian markets rallied overnight. Japan's Nikkei 225 soared 3.74% to 8916.06 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 2.95% to 14901.41.



Stocks Rally in Time for the 3-day Easter Weekend ...


NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks soared on Thursday, sparking a 200-point rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average( DJIA), with investor spirits lifted by a surprising first-quarter profit prediction by Wells Fargo & Co. . The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 204.85 points to 8,041.96. The S&P 500 Index(.INX) climbed 25.55 points to 850.71. The Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC)rose 51.62 points to 1,642.18.

Rare talk of "profits" for a bank sparked big gains in the financial sector, which led the broader market higher on Thursday.

There's a growing body of evidence that the economy is beginning to make a cyclical turn and that the financial sector is finding a more even keel. Wholesale inventories fell by the largest increment on record, according to a Wednesday report, and the inventory-to-sales ratio, the most direct measure of supply and demand in the economy, showed that the latter is gradually catching up with the former. Lawrence Summers, a key economic adviser to President Barack Obama, noted Thursday the promise of a cyclical surge in production revealed by the inventory data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 196 points to 8033.36, the S&P 500-stock index gained 2.9% to 849.44 on a 8% surge in its financial sector. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 3.3% to 1653.30, and is up 4.1% for the year. Traders are betting on the technology and consumer stocks that would benefit from a recovery. Dell shares rose 7.3% to $10.94 and eBay gained 6.9% to $14.91.

Wells Fargo shares jumped 24% to $18.48 after the bank said it expects to report record net income of approximately $3 billion, or 55 cents a share, for first quarter. The company said that it is seeing strong operating results from its acquisition of Wachovia and that lending activity has been brisk. Wells said it expects consolidated net interest margin of approximately 4.1%.

"There is going to be a clear difference between ... (click here to read more of this story.)

The Wall Street Report: Unemployment Grows

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.

The Wall Street Report: GM CEO Rick Wagoner Is Out

Chrysler's Viability Assessment[pdf]
GM's Viability Assessment[pdf]
Auto Restructuring Fact Sheet[pdf]
Warranty Commitment Program[pdf]

GM CEO Rick Wagoner Is Ousted By the United States Government

The fall of General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner was unavoidable. There is no way President Obama could hand out more billions to a management with a practically unblemished record of failure.


Yes, it's certainly good news; the Wagoner management was never going to turn around General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ). Never. After all, Wagoner has been chief executive since 2000 and head of North American auto operations six more years before that. His predecessor and mentor, Jack Smith, became chief in 1992. GM lost market share in the U.S. in all but a couple of those years. The losses in Wagoner's last four years topped $80 billion.


Worse, GM seemed adrift in this crisis. Its European operations--and they are key to saving GM--seem to be without serious direction. In the U.S. we hear mostly of program cancellations, and the Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, Please click here to read the rest of this story.

As expected, the Markets took a huge jump of a cliff, over the news of the firing General Motors (GM) CEO Rick Wagoner, and the banks financial situation. The Dow fell 254.16 (-3.27%) at 7522.02 ; and Nasdaq dropped 43.40 (-2.81%) to 1501.80 .