In the last week the DOW has rallied 1000 points and the SPX over 100 points! Thats what you call a bear market rally!
Start getting rid of long positions, it doesnt take much for this market to drop 2-3% in a few hours!
Stocks End Near Session Highs, Dow Soars 300
CNBC.com | October 10, 2011 | 04:05 PM EDT
Stocks surged in the final minutes of trading to close at session highs Monday, led by banks, amid optimism that France and Germany's pledge would help resolve the euro zone debt crisis and rescue the region's struggling financials.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average logged its best five-day point gain since Dec. 2008, led by BofA [ BAC 6.28 +0.38 (+6.44%) ] and JPMorgan [ JPM 32.30 +1.60 (+5.21%) ]. The Dow has rallied over 1,000 points from last Tuesday's intraday low of 10404.49.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also ended sharply higher. Both major indexes are on pace for their best month this year. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded below 34.
All 10 S&P sectors finished firmly in the black, led by banks and energy.
Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to present a plan before a G20 summit early next month to shore up euro zone banks, settle the Greek debt crisis and help growth in Europe.
âThe optimism is amazing to meâI donât think any market participant is saying things are fixed in Europe, but what theyâre hoping is that by the time Europe starts to resurface again in a few months from now, there will be traction in our economy that will be enough of a positive to wipe out the negative there,â Jim Iuorio of TJM Institutional Services told CNBC.
The optimism helped propel commodities higherâgold surged to near $1,670 an ounce, while U.S. light, sweet crude and London Brent crude both rallied more than 2 percent each. The euro jumped over 2 percent against the safe-haven dollar. The last time the euro move up more than 2 percent against the greenback was in July 2010.
Banks are once again in focus after the board of Franco-Belgian bank Dexia [ DEXI.BR 0.805 -0.04 (-4.73%) ] agreed to the nationalization of its Belgian banking division and secured state guarantees after the bankâwhich has been significantly exposed to Greek debtâran into liquidity trouble. Dexia shares jumped 10 percent, erasing an earlier drop of almost 30 percent after resuming trading.
Shares of U.S. financials rallied as France and Germany's pledge in addition to Dexia's rescue helped ease worries that lenders would be exposed to losses at their European counterparts. Morgan Stanley [ MS 15.29 +1.05 (+7.37%) ] and Citigroup [ C 26.49 +1.86 (+7.55%) ] surged more than 5 percent each.
Meanwhile, the EU president said he is delaying next week's summit until Oct. 23 because leaders need more time to finalize a plan to fight a worsening debt crisis.