MarketView for March 11

Summary

Wall Street chalked up another overall gain on Monday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to another record high and giving the S&P 500 its seventh straight advance as early weakness enticed buyers. The gains briefly lifted the benchmark S&P 500 index to its highest intraday level since October 2007.

Translated, what this means is that the equity markets are continuing to move higher, coming on the heels of last week's rally with the Dow ending at a record closing high, up 50.22 points, or 0.35 percent, at 14,447.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 5.04 points, or 0.32 percent, to 1,556.22, just below its record closing high of 1,565.15 reached on October 9, 2007. Early in the day’s trading session, the S&P 500 hit 1,556.27, its highest intraday level since October 15, 2007. The Dow has gained over 10 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 is up more than 9 percent.

The Nasdaq Composite Index added 8.51 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 3,252.87.

Meanwhile, Wall Street's "fear gauge" closed at its lowest level since February 2007, suggesting investors were not spooked by Monday's brief pullback, despite expectations by many investors that a correction may be looming. The CBOE Volatility fell 8.2 percent to 11.56.

The equity markets have rallied since the start of the year, helped by signs of improvement in the economy and the support of equities by the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program. These factors have contained recent pullbacks as investors have used them as a buying opportunity.

However, volume was light, with about 5.39 billion shares changing hands on the three major equity exchanges, a number that was below the daily average of 6.47 billion shares. Could the rally be losing steam?

Wall Street had traded slightly lower earlier in the day as Italy's credit downgrade and disappointing Chinese economic data gave investors a reason to pause.

Boeing hit $83.03, its highest level since May 2008, after the Company said strong demand was prompting it to increase its production rates of commercial planes. It shares, which rose 2 percent to $82.94 at the close, was the Dow's largest percentage gainer. Boeing also gave the greatest  boost to the Dow in Monday's session.

BlackBerry ended the day up 14.1 percent to $14.90 after AT&T said it will start selling the company's new BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen smartphone in the United States on March 22.

Dell has agreed to give Carl Icahn a closer look at its books less than a week after the activist investor joined a growing chorus of opposition to founder Michael Dell's plan to take the world's No. 3 personal computer maker private. Dell shares gained 1.5 percent to $14.37, above the take-private offer price of $13.65.

Genworth Financial ended the day up 6.7 percent to close at $10.50 following a report by Barron's that the mortgage insurer's stock could almost double in the next year, boosted by gains in mortgage and healthcare pricing. In contrast, Dick's Sporting Goods fell 10.8 percent to $45.11 after the retailer reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter results and gave a disappointing forecast.