November 4, 2011
By Anthony Rivieccio, Jason Johnson
The S&P 500 has ended its best month in almost 40 years.
The S&P 500 closed its fourth week of gains and is up more than 13 percent in October alone and is up for the year, if only a bit more than 2 percent.
European leaders reached a long-awaited agreement to boost the region’s bailout fund and struck a deal with banks and insurers who will take a 50 percent loss on their Greek bonds. A more disorderly default from Greece, and the possibility of sovereign defaults spreading in Europe, were part of the reason the S&P 500 closed its worst quarter since 2008 in September.
The market was also relieved after data earlier this week showed the U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in a year in the third quarter. A heavy flow of job market data, capped on Friday by the government’s monthly report of job payrolls, show employers created 95,000 jobs in October. More than 100 S&P 500 companies will report earnings next week. Among the more than 300 that have already posted earnings for the past quarter, roughly seven out of 10 have reported better numbers than analysts expected.
The technical picture is also turning bullish, with the S&P moving this week above its 200-day moving average for the first time since early August. At
1,285 the S&P faces resistance just below 1,300.
