S&P Tops 1,850 Again, DJIA Flat on Surging Tech Sector

The S&P once again topped 1,850 and all major indices reported modest to neligible gains on April 8 in anticipation of the earnings report of major aluminum fabricator Alcoa (AA) .

Alcoa’s longstanding relationship to the Dow, coupled with their propensity to report early in the quarter, has made Alcoa the generally accepted bellwether of the entire earnings season. Alcoa has had a string of successful reports, something the bulls would more than like to see continue with the first earnings report of 2014.

Other than the Alcoa earnings, a lack of economic data and little news on the Russian front left the market to its own devices, and the market responded with cautious optimism. Tech led the charge for the S&P and NASDAQ, with First Solar (FSLR) rising 7.01 percent on heavy volume. eBay (EBAY) , Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) also had big up-days, with each gaining over 2 percent.   

In the Dow, Nike Inc. (NKE) was up 3 percent on an upgrade from Stifel. This was offset by slight losses for Goldman Sachs Group (GS) , Boeing (BA) and Pfizer (PFE) , all of whom lost around 1 percent.

Market Results for April 8, 2014

• Standard & Poor’s 500: +.38 percent to 1851.96 points

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.06 percent to 16256.14 points

• NASDAQ Exchange: +0.88 percent to 4112.98631 points

Our Top Stories

• Senior Editor Joel Anderson argues that the Dow Jones is a useless relic and should be abolished.

• John Mauldin warns that we need to be wary of “Lions in the Grass,” or hidden dangers in an otherwise friendly-looking economic terrain.

• Senior Editor Jacob Harper on the advantages and disadvantages of banks that exist almost entirely on the internet.

• George Brooks examines the macroeconomic conditions that have lain the foundation for a possible broad-reaching buying opportunity.

• Raymond James' Pavel Molchanov
  Raymond James' Pavel Molchanov

  Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov tells the Energy Report about the stars he's finding in the emerging "cleantech" sector.

Stocks

• 3D printing upstart Organovo (ONVO) declined on another negative research report from Simeon, a group that appears to be short-sellers masquerading as analysts.

• A look at “household name” stocks that get overwhelmingly bearish marks from analysts.