Stocks Stall Amid Continued Anxiety

'Teflon investors' are relying on the good news

(NEWSER) - Stocks are surging while classic indicators are signaling slump — so what gives? The answer, reports the Washington Post, lies in a bright jobs report and spiking Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Backers are dissing the bad news as fast as they can finance, says the Post: "Call them the Teflon investors." More»

It's decent news, but let's not get carried away

(NEWSER) - The Dow hit 10,000 today, but most analysts aren't exactly falling off their chairs in excitement:

• Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch: "It would be entirely in investors' rights to feel pretty good about it. But they're not, on the whole. That's surprising, and suggests to contrarian analysts" that a "strong wall of worry" still exists.
• Brett Arends, Wall Street Journal: "Hold the cheering. The rally in US share prices only looks impressive if you ignore what's happening overseas." Our surge pales in camparison, and "investors should be more cautious now than they were a few months ago."

Markets propelled by strong earnings from Intel, JPMorgan

(AP) - The Dow Jones industrial average reached 10,000 today for the first time since Oct. 7, 2008. The milestone, which triggered a whoop from the trading floor, was buoyed by surprisingly strong earnings reports from Intel and JPMorgan. The latter stoked the market's optimism as it handily beat Wall Street's expectations, reporting a profit of $3.59 billion for the July-September period. More»

After early optimistic surge, Dow falls 300 points

(AP) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned today that the financial crisis has not only darkened the country's current economic performance but also could prolong the pain. The Fed chief's gloomy assessment appeared to hint of an interest rate cut on or before the Fed’s next meeting later this month. Despite the sign of a possible rate cut, the Dow was down around 300 points midday. More»

Stocks dip early, then tick closer to even ahead of mid-afternoon announcement

(NEWSER) - Stocks swung upward after big opening losses today, the Wall Street Journal reports, helped by speculation that the Federal Reserve might step in to help AIG and cut interest rates. The Dow, down 155 early, was just barely negative before noon, with a similar pattern from other indices. “We're in uncharted territory,” one funds manager told Bloomberg. “There's no real historic precedent for what we're going through.” More»