Morning Market Report

The mini losing streak is officially over. After three straight days of losses, all three indices fired back yesterday. Each was up between 1 and 2%. The Dow gained gained 124 points and finished at 9789. The S&P 500 gained 18.60 and finished at 1062. Finally, the NASDAQ gained 39.82 and finished at 2130.74. All three are now near highs for the year again. September is looking to be a very strong month despite the "conventional wisdom" at the beginning of the month. They are currently down marginally, less than a quarter of a percent each. The markets rose following the disclosure of several high profile mergers and acquisitions including Kraft and Xerox. That's interesting because markets don't always respond positively to mergers and acquisitions. Clearly, it sees this as positive for the economy.

Meanwhile, bonds are also trading slightly worse this morning but they are also taking a breather from a relatively long rally. The ten year U.S. Treasury bond is now at 3.30% That's up two basis points from close yesterday, but close yesterday is the lowest since June. The spread between the two and ten year has widened slightly. It's now at 2.34% after tightening to 2.3% yesterday. Oil is currently trading at $66.09 that's down 75 cents a barrel. It's also near lows for the last six weeks.

Again, we have near mirror images of each other between Europe and the Far East. The Far East was up nearly across the board while Europe was down nearly across the board. The Hang Seng in China was up 2.06%, the NIKKEI in Japan was up .91% and the Straits Time Index in Singapore was up 1.3%. The broader Chinese index was down .33% but it was the only major Far East index down. The FTSE in London was down .12%, the DAX in Germany was down .19%, and the Spanish index was down .32%. The Italian index was up .36% and was one of two European indices to be up.

The Dollar is mixed against the major currencies. It's up .41% against the Euro, down .52% against the British Pound, and up .39% against the Japanese Yen.