MarketView for March 4

Summary

The major equity indexes rallied just before the closing bell on Monday as investors staged a late-day rebound, extending a recent trend of buying on dips and pushing major indexes near all-time highs despite concerns about growth and China's housing market.

The Dow closed within 37 points of its all-time closing high, recovering from early losses on plans to tighten curbs on China's housing market, as well as a slowdown in the growth of that country's services sector.

Any slowdown in the world's second-largest economy could affect us, especially commodities and materials, which have a lot of exposure to China. Industrial and material shares were among the weakest of the day, with Caterpillar ending the day down1.8 percent to close at $89.75. Alcoa was down 1.1 percent, closing at $8.35.

Google touched a lifetime intraday high of $822.84as its shares ended the day up 1.9 percent at $821.50 as the closing bell rang.

The S&P 500 is now up about 7 percent in 2013 as many on the Street continue to view equities as more attractively valued than other asset classes, allowing stocks to resist calls for a pullback even with few obvious catalysts to drive shares definitively higher.

Concerns about "automatic" budget cuts in the United States and the euro-zone debt crisis also have served as reasons for investors to take a breather in the face of technical resistance. Any sign that the $85 billion in cuts are beginning to take a toll on the economy could jostle markets.

Retail stocks ranked among the strongest of the day after Deutsche Bank raised price targets on Target and Macy's. Target ended the day up 3.6 percent to $66.44 while Macy's rose 2.1 percent to close at $41.54. Bucking today’s trend was J.C. Penney, which is struggling to compete against its rivals. J.C. Penney's stock fell 5.4 percent to $16.74.

Investors will also keep an eye on Europe, with Italy possibly inching toward another election within months after center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani issued an ultimatum to anti-establishment 5-Star Movement boss Beppe Grillo to support a new government or return to the polls.

Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve's influential vice chairwoman, provided some support for the market when she said the central bank's aggressive monetary stimulus is warranted, given how far below its full potential the economy is operating.

Hess rose 3.5 percent to $68.84 after the company said it will exit its retail, energy marketing, and energy trading businesses. Hess also boosted its dividend by 150 percent and announced a stock-buyback program.

Ferro shares ended the day up 30.8 percent to $6.80 after A. Schulman offered to buy the company for $563 million, although Ferro rejected the bid.