US Market ends higher after GDP estimates revised higher

US Market fights back in last minutes to end in green despite crude kissing $66/barrel

Though market opened in the morning in a positive note, riding on the back of better than expected economic data, the indices spent much of the day sea sawing between high and low as crude oil prices shot up beyond $66/bbl today. Dow was up by 80 points at one time, but lower by almost 40 points at another time. But in the final minutes of trading, market made a comeback and ended the day with all the three indices in green.

Stock futures had extended their gains after the Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 2.5% annual pace in the final three months of 2006, slightly faster than the previous estimate of 2.2%. Oil prices surged above $66 a barrel for the first time since September amid increasing tension with Iran and strife in Nigeria.

24 out of 30 stocks closed higher for the day. For the day (29 March, Thursday) the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 48.39 points at 12348.75, Nasdaq higher by 0.78 points at 2417.88 and S&P 500 higher by 5.3 points at 1422.53. Altria, Exxon Mobil and American Express were the main Dow winners while 3M, General Motors and United Technologies were the major Dow laggards.

Nine out of ten economic sectors ended higher for the day. The lone sector that stood as a loser was technology. Airlines and Telecom fell the most while Oil and Pharmaceuticals were the main winners.

Better than expected economic data starts day in good tone

The stock market started the day on a positive note with Dow up by 65 points when market opened in the morning. The bullish bias was solidified when the initial claims and final Q4 GDP reports checked in better than expected. Claims for the latest week fell by 10,000 to 308,000. Q4 GDP was revised up to 2.5% from 2.2% (though it is still down from the 3.5% that was first reported for Q4 GDP).

Materials was one of the top gainers today, aided by the outperformance of the steel group which has rallied on the news that U.S. Steel is going to acquire Lone Star Technologies for $2.1 billion

Crude surpasses $66 amid tensions between UK and Iran

In the broad market for equities, trading volumes showed 1.509 billion exchanging hands on the New York Stock Exchange and 1.943 billion on the Nasdaq stock market. Advancing issues outpaced gainers by 5 to 3 on the NYSE, while decliners and gainers were in roughly equal balance on the Nasdaq.

Today crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for May delivery closed at $66.03/barrel (higher by $ 1.95/barrel or 3.04%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices also stood at their highest level of the year. Prices shot up after continuing tensions between Iran and the U.K. continued to ignite concerns about supply disruptions in the Persian Gulf. Iran also suspended the release of the female British trooper that it had previously said would be released late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Among major bluechip stocks, Boeing gained 0.4% after Colombia's largest airline, Avianca SA, said it would buy 10 of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Intel gained 1.1% after saying it would make design changes to boost microchip performance, including adopting techniques from rival Advanced Micro Devices

For tomorrow, the February Personal Income and Spending report are expected before market opens. Also on the economic calendar are Chicago PMI followed by Construction Spending and a revision of Michigan Sentiment.