This post is from CNBC producer Robert Hum.
Stocks rallied strongly with their best first trading day of a new year since 2003. Despite a disappointing ISM Manufacturing number earlier this morning, the advance was broad-based (better than 5 to 1 advancing to declining stocks at the NYSE), though on light volume.
With gains in 5 of the past 6 days, the Dow has now climbed over 7% since its close on December 23 and closed over the 9,000 mark for the first time since November 5th.
As the Dow snapped 4 straight weeks of declines this week, traders hope that the optimism can continue into 2009’s first full week of trading next week. There may be headwinds though, as another gloomy jobs report along with a poor round of retail and auto sales numbers are likely in store for the markets.
Also keep an eye out if the pre-holiday volatility returns to the marketplace. With traders returning to the desk following the holiday weeks, volume should once again pick up, and investors should get a better sense of the market sentiment in the new year.
For the week: Dow up 6.1%, S&P up 6.8%, Nasdaq up 6.7%.
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