A Review On The Market

Stock market saw a dip today after a 3 day rally. The biggest culprit was the oil prices, that jumped to its highest level in 9 months. The Dow fell by 26.50, the Nasdaq by 0.11 and S&P 500 index by 1.86. Settling inflation data at both the wholesale and consumer level helped a bull rally at the market. Overall last week, the Dow gained 1.6%, the S&P 500 gained 1.7% and the Nasdaq gained 2.1%. Stocks posted their worst selloff since February before the 3-day runup, on fears that the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates sometime this year due to strong economic growth and greater inflationary pressure.

Today

• Oil prices settled at $69.09 a barrel for the day.
  
• Gold also added $1.20 to to $659.90 an ounce today.
  
• Treasury prices edged higher, putting the yield on the 10-year note at 5.14%.
  
• Dollar eased against the euro and was higher versus the yen.
• U.S. home builder sentiment fell to its lowest level in over 16 years due to rising mortgage rates and more strict lending practices.

Companies

• Alcoa (AA) stock prices rose following a report that mining group BHP Billiton is reconsidering a takeover bid for the Dow component aluminum producer.
• Yahoo (YHOO) jumped more than 5% in after-hours trading following the news that present CEO Terry Semel will step down to be replaced by co-founder Jerry Yang. Investors believe that the new CEO would bring life back to the media giant after been outright beaten by rival Google (GOOG).
• The fast-food chain Wendy's said it was exploring a possible sale of the company and also cut its 2007 earnings forecast, sending the stock down 3.7 %.
• Share of Apple (AAPL) rose after the company said that its widely anticipated iPhone will have a longer battery life than it originally expected, putting to rest one of the key concerns about the new wireless phone.
• British media outfit Pearson is in talks with General Electric about a joint bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones that would permit the controlling Bancroft family to keep a minority interest, according to a report published Sunday afternoon.
  

Upcoming

• Tuesday and Thursday will be crucial for the market, since economic indicators like the housing stats for May and regional manufacturing reports will be issued.
• Analysts expect a rather choppy week.
• Few important companies report earnings this week, namely Best Buy, Fed Ex and Morgan Stanley.