Barchart Stock Market Wrap – February 24, 2009

Bargain hunting and optimism from the Federal Reserve chairman contributed to today’s stock market rally. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress today that the current recession might end in 2009, prompting a buying spurt on Wall Street.

However, economic indicators continued to point to a worsening recession. This morning the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence index fell to 25 in February, much worse than the 36 expected by market observers.

The Dow Jones Industrials closed up 236 points to close at 7,351 for a gain of 3.3% today. The S&P 500 Index was also higher, closing up 30 points for a gain of 4%.

April Comex gold futures continued to fall, today by $31.7 to $963.3 on hopes for a better economy after Bernanke.

The spot April crude oil futures gained $1.51, on a short covering rally.
 

The March Dollar Index was off by 38 points on some profit-taking by safe harbor investors.

Reports Due Tomorrow:

10:00 am – National Association of realtors Existing Home Sales report for January  (expected at 4.81 million versus 4.74 million in December)

10:30 am – Crude Oil Inventories for the week ended 2/20. (Last week stocks were 350.6 million barrels).  

Market Momentum: There were 2,700 advancing issues on the NYSE, with 445 declining issues. On the NASDAQ, there were 2,027 advancing issues with 743 declining.

New 52-week Highs: There were 5 issues reaching 52-week highs between the NYSE and NASDAQ

New 52-week Lows: There were 509 new 52-week lows on the NYSE and NASDAQ.