Midnight Trader | Apr 14, 2014 04:22PM ET
Stocks seesawed Monday afternoon, giving back part of a morning rally that followed a strong rebound in consumer spending last month and above-consensus financial results by financial-services giant Citigroup (NYSE:C). Healthcare stocks again struggled in the afternoon swoon, turning negative ahead of the close after earlier posting moderate gains. But technology issues, which like healthcare stocks saw steep losses last week -- held on to much of their morning advance, closing on the positive side while the Dow Jones Composite closed near its high for the day, up 0.9% at 16,173.24
Strong Data
Stocks rallied earlier after the Commerce Department reported retail sales rose a better-than-expected 1.1% in March, the strongest monthly growth since September 2012. The agency also revised February sales higher, now recording a 0.7% rise, up from an originally reported 0.3% advance.
Also, Monday, business inventories grew 0.4% in February to a seasonally adjusted $1.72 trillion, coming in just short of the 0.5% consensus estimate. The inventory-to-sales ratio remained unchanged at 1.31.
Although stocks have largely shrugged off weekend bloodshed in Ukraine, geo-political unrest continues to fuel a safe-haven bid for Gold. June futures for the yellow metal were up $9.10 to $1,327.70 per ounce, rising for a fifth day in a row, while May silver was up 7 cents to $20.01 per ounce.
In other commodities trade, crude oil for May delivery settled 31 cents higher at $104.05 per barrel while May natural gas was down 6 cents to $4.56 per 1 million BTU. May copper rose a penny to finish at $3.06 per pound.
h3 Here's Where The Markets Stood At Day's End/h3GLOBAL SENTIMENT
UPSIDE MOVERS
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
After Hours Stock News From Midnight Trader .
Copyright © 2014 MT Newswires, a Division of MidnightTrader, Inc.
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.