A late-session rally yesterday helped stocks finish in positive territory. Investors were propped up by better-than-expected readings on new home sales and durable goods orders. Yesterday’s momentum looks set to carry over this morning with Wall Street again set to open higher, though futures have paired back from their morning highs.
On the economic front, the final fourth Quarter GDP was revised to show a 6.3% decline in real GDP versus the 6.2% decline in the preliminary report. Meanwhile, initial jobless claims for the week ending March 21st rose 8,000 to 625,000, basically in-line with expectations. Continuing claims worsened, jumping 122,000 to 5.56 million and reiterating that jobs are hard to come by.
In other matters, several Fed officials will be speaking on policy matters today, while Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will testify before the House Financial Services Committee. He is expected to discuss new proposals to control non-bank financial institutions, including the establishment of a regulator to monitor system-wide financial risk as well as stricter rules for credit default swaps and other financial instruments.
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