Stock Market News for April 02, 2014 - Market News - Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Encouraging manufacturing data helped benchmarks finish in the green and the S&P notched a record high. Also, better-than-expected new-vehicle sales for March boosted investor sentiment. This was the third-straight day of gains for the benchmarks.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 0.5% to close Tuesday's trading session at 16,532.61. The Standard & Poor (S&P 500) rose 0.7% to finish at 1,885.52. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index surged 1.6% to 4,268.04. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) dropped 5.6% to settle at 13.10. Total volume for the day was roughly 6.4 billion shares, lower than previous month's average of 6.9 billion. Declining stocks were outnumbered by advancing stocks on the NYSE. For 28% stocks that declined, 70% advanced.

Benchmarks ended in positive territory as investors were buoyed by encouraging economic data on factory activity. According to the Institute for Supply management, March PMI increased 0.5 percentage points to 53.7% from February's reading of 53.2%. This indicated rise in manufacturing activities for the 10th successive month. However, the rise to 53.7% in March was less than consensus expectation of an increase to 53.8%. The ISM Manufacturing Index is based on surveys of 300 purchasing managers nationwide representing 20 industries regarding manufacturing activity. The rise in such a key index of the world's largest economy was immediately welcomed by investors.

Separately, the New Orders Index advanced 0.6 percentage point from February to 55.1% in March. The Production Index stood at 55.9%, increasing 7.7 percentage points from February's reading of 48.2%.

Additionally, the report on construction spending was favorable. The US Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce reported a 0.1% rise in construction spending from revised January estimate of $944.6 billion to $945.7 billion in February. This increase in the payout by builders on residential and nonresidential structures was in sharp contrast to consensus estimate of a 0.1% drop.

Markets also ended higher on Tuesday boosted by positive U.S. car sales data. Total vehicle sales increased to an annualized rate of 16.4 million in March, well beyond the consensus expectation of a rise to 15.7 million. Domestic-made vehicle sales also climbed to an annualized rate of 13 million in March, more than the consensus expectation of an increase to 12.2 million. U.S. car sales surged in March after harsh winter weather during the months of January and February halted growth.
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General Motors Company GM, Ford Motor Co. F, Toyota Motor Corporation TM and Chrysler Group LLC reported rise in their sales data. General Motors reported a 4% rise in U.S. vehicle sales to 256,047 units in March. Analysts had been expecting a gain of 1% or less. Ford said net sales in March had increased 3% to 244,167 units, more than analyst expectations of 239,423 units. Also, sales of Japanese auto maker Toyota and privately-owned Chrysler Group climbed 4.9% and 13%, respectively, in March.

Shares of Ford and Toyota went up 4.6% and 0.3%, respectively. However shares of General Motors dropped 0.2%. As for other stocks in the automobile sector, Daimler AG DDAIF, Volkswagen AG VLKAY and Tesla Motors, Inc. TSLA increased 1.5%, 0.8% and 4.1%, respectively.

Eight out of 10 sectors of the S&P 500 ended in the green. The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR XLY led the advance, rising 1.4%. Key stocks from the sectors such as Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, The Walt Disney Company DIS, The Home Depot, Inc. HD, priceline.com Incorporated PCLN and Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. FOXA gained 1.9%, 1.9%, 0.3%, 4.9% and 3.4%, respectively.

The Technology sector followed the Consumer Discretionary sector. The Technology Select Sector SPDR XLK rose 1.2%. Top holdings from the sector such as Apple Inc. AAPL, Google Inc. GOOG, Microsoft Corporation MSFT, Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and International Business Machines Corporation IBM increased 0.9%, 1.8%, 1.1%, 0.4% and 1%, respectively.

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