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Source: Thomson Reuters
Description: Stocks were skittish Monday, rebounding but
fluctuating wildly as bargain hunters and
investors worried about a coming "correction"
battled it out; Retail sales jump, Citigroup
support stock buying.
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Short Link: http://reut.rs/P149C8
Transcript (May be auto-generated)
Markets bounced back but investors struggled to commit, sending stock prices
gyrating into the close. Blue chips rallied 146 points, the S&P 500 rose 14, and
the NASDAQ rebounded by 22 points; all off the highs of the day. Some investors
decided it was time to look for bargains after stocks suffered their worst week
in nearly two years, but some analysts questioned whether this bounce back is
just a trap before markets fall again. Either way, Russell Investments' Stephen
Wood says expect further volatility. Markets have been kind of flat year-to-date
which, given all the information that's been priced in - the earnings cycle, the
revenue cycle, what's happening in the Ukraine, emerging markets, potential
issues coming out of Washington – so given all that volatility, the markets
are flattish year-to-date which speaks to me to being a little bit more
resilient than the headlines might insinuate. Retail sales brought some much
needed relief. Total retail sales rose by the largest amount in a year and a
half during the month of March and February sales figures were revised higher
than initially announced.
Excluding strong auto sales, the gain was the largest in a year. The data
provide further evidence that the economic slowdown early this year was largely
due to weather. Take a look at how some consumer related stocks fared:
MasterCard, Visa, Bebe Stores, Diageo, and Anheuser-Busch InBev among the big
gainers. Another gainer: Citigroup. The bank, which has been back in the news in
a negative light, surprised with a less bad quarterly report. Income was better
than expected with its troubled assets, well, less troubled. Total revenues,
however, down with Citigroup hit by the drop in mortgage lending and bond
trading which also hurt JPMorgan Chase. Another corporate story is Google has
acquired Titan Aerospace, a solar-powered drone maker for an undisclosed amount.
The deal was part of Google's plans to deliver wireless Internet access to
remote parts of the world. Facebook is looking to expand its social network to
the financial network as in a mobile payment service according to the Financial
Times. Now, to Europe: Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine kept stocks
from rising significantly