More Stock Market Gains Are Expected

April 11th, 2010 by Bharathi

Stocks posted the sixth consecutive weekly gain, with the Dow Jones Industrial flirting with 11,000. We had good jobs report and better than expected same store sales that signaled that the U.S. economy is recovering. Treasuries had a strong week on interest rate outlook and auction demand.

March jobs report released on Friday showed the biggest increase in job creation in 3 years, as employers added 162,000 jobs!

Energy and commodity related shares led the way as the Dollar weakened versus the euro, as Greece’s debt worries eased and European confidence in the economic outlook improved to the highest in almost two years in March, beating economists’ forecasts and signaling the recovery is gathering strength.

Commodity traders are smiling happily because of the rally in gold, copper and aluminum prices. Gold rose to the highest price in four weeks and copper climbed to a 20-month high.

Stock market’s outlook looks brighter for the coming week. Earnings season starts on Monday. Dow is flirting with 11,000 psychological level for the first time since September 2008. Earnings from the following companies will decide the direction for the market. All these companies are scheduled to announce earnings in the next two weeks.