The Closing Look

Stocks rallied on Wednesday after crude oil broke out and hit a fresh high for 2016. This helped a slew of commodity stocks rally which lifted the broader indices. Earnings data was mixed. Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) and United Healthy (UNH) rallied after reporting numbers but others fell. Economic was relatively light. Existing home sales beat estimates in March, rising +5.1% to a 5.330 million annualized rate. Existing home sales fell -7.3% in February and the year-on-year rate was only +1.5% which is still weak.

Gary’s Thoughts: A few things sticking out today…defensive areas like utilities, reits, consumer staples and maybe the bond market toppy here…especially utilities. On top of that, gold stocks petered out from very extended condition late in the day. Needs rest/pullback.