The WSJ reports,"If you want to feel good about the gains in the U.S. stock market today, go right ahead. The Dow added 87 points, and at 16449, is only about 0.8% off from its all-time high (16576.66, for the record).
But that closing number completely masks what was a far more unbalanced session. The Dow opened up as much as 139 points, before surrendering the whole thing and falling as many as 49 points. It recovered in the afternoon to close high. That kind of mid-session bipolarity is not a reassuring sign. The other indexes reflect that: the S&P 500 was up a far more modest 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite was essentially flat. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 was down 0.5%.
Sure, the market’s a bit jittery over the headlines coming out of the Ukraine. But we continue to see the markets struggling to make headway at these levels, and as evidenced by the moves in the Nasdaq and Russell, tech stocks in particular are struggling (except for Apple, which suddenly seems to have some life to it).
The big news on Monday was Pfizer’s attempt to wrestle a deal with AstraZeneca, with the latter demure about the odds of a $100 billion deal. Whether the U.K. company is angling for a better, or truly doesn’t want to do a deal, this story’s got a few more chapters to play out to be sure".
