Dow Shows Confidence in U.S. Economy

http://www.mercurynews.com/markets/ci_5860957?nclick_check=1

Latest Dow record shows confidence in U.S. economy
Mercury News Wire Services
Article Launched: 05/10/2007 01:34:12 AM PDT

Stocks climbed Wednesday, sending the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average to another record close.

  The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 4.59, or 0.2 percent, to 2,576.34.

Silicon Valley’s largest tech stocks by market value were mixed. Google, Intel, Apple, eBay, Gilead Sciences and Applied Materials gained. Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Yahoo dropped.

The Dow rose 53.80, or 0.4 percent, to 13,362.87. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 4.86, or 0.3 percent, to 1,512.58.

Federal Reserve policy-makers Wednesday kept short-term interest rates unchanged and noted that while economic growth is slowing, they still consider inflation a higher risk than the possibility of a slowdown in the economy.

“No one is really surprised,” said Jay Suskind, director of trading at Ryan Beck. "The market whisper was that they would show more concern about inflation.

“The market rallied back up because the flip side is that this means the economy is doing well enough and earnings will stay strong,” Suskind said.

Texas Instruments rallied $1.66, or 4.4 percent, to $36.83. The Dallas maker of mobile phone chips raised its target for gross margin, or the percentage of sales minus production costs, to 55 percent from 50 percent.

IBM, a Dow component, rose $1.09, or 1.1 percent, to $104.38. The technology giant’s shares were upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by Goldman Sachs.

Weighing on the Dow, Walt Disney dropped 43 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $36.12 after the Burbank entertainment giant didn’t generate as much revenue as analysts had forecast, though its 27 percent profit rise came in ahead of forecast.

Bond prices dropped after the Fed decision. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves in the opposite direction, climbed to 4.67 percent from 4.64 percent late Tuesday.

  The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Crude-oil prices dropped 71 cents to $61.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after the U.S. government said the nation’s gasoline stockpiles increased last week.

The Associated Press, MarketWatch and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

What a difference a day makes… :mrgreen:

Odds against US recession 2 to 1: Greenspan
Posted: 11 May 2007

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/275535/1/.html

U.S. economy poised for nose dive
Major recession feared when ‘liquidity bubble’ bursts

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Worldnetdaily.com is a wonderful source that I read all the time,
but they also like to sell gold coins (doomsday reports go with this type
of vendor) and they lean toward some conspiracy and UFO stories
a little to heavy “sometimes”… IMHO.

Please read with caution, when considering their stories about the end of
the world as we know it.

John,

I think Joe is “Gold Bug”. They hope doom and gloom scenarios will actually happen so their gold will out preform other investment vehicles.
Gold may be a good investment at times but with an ongoing great economy this doesn’t appear to be a good strategy at this time. Of course things can change overnight but when you decide to bet against the American economy you are most likely making a huge mistake. JMHO your milage may vary.

You know very little about me and that is a good thing, so why speculate? I have almost no gold investments less then 2%, why would anyone want to own something that only provides capital appreciation, true wealth is not created that way.

Believing you will get rich by owning gold is as foolish as believing that you can create wealth buying newly built houses from builders and selling them to other investors.

Sorry Joe,

I made an assumption based on all the negative posts about the economy you are wont to post and where they tend to come from.