Market In-Review – A New Era For Equity

• NASDAQ composite Index set new all-time daily close high, Thursday, at 5,056 points
• Index will prey upon surpassing all-time intra-day record of 5,132.5 points, this week
• Oil prices secure sixth consecutive weekly gain, adding 2.5%
• Global equity markets concluded week in the green in news of Greek progress

The NASDAQ Composite Index concluded a 15 year era, on Thursday, setting a new all-time daily close record of 5,056 points. The index's prolonged period below the previous, March 2000, record of 5,048 points was often regarded as a reminder of how overpriced that index was during the merry days of the .com bubble. After gaining an additional 36 points on Friday, to 5,092, the index opens this week's session a mere 40 points from its intraday all time record.

Naturally, adjusting for inflation during the last 15 years would set the index at a considerably lower level – nearly 40%, in fact.  Additionally, it should be noted that the composition of the index has considerably changed since Y2K. Obviously, we have less .com levels and the largest firms on the Nasdaq today, such as Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) have a line of business much broader than it were at that time. So a drop to a level of 1,108 points achieved about a year and a half after that .com peak seems rather unlikely at the moment.

Assets gain as we manage to avoid Greek Drama

Last week's session opened with some concern from whatever comments could have been made at Friday's Finance Minister meeting. After seeing a rather impressive rally in the preceding weeks, oil prices haven't managed to see much of an upside through much of the start of last week's session. Suppressing oil prices, the U.S. Department of Energy report saw a 5.3 M bbl increase in crude inventories, on Wednesday. After a very strong Thursday session, seeing a USD 1.6 per bbl gain, a drop in U.S. rig count, Friday, has led oil prices to recede somewhat, ending the week with a 2.5% gain, which, positively, is the sixth consecutive one for oil.

Equity markets started the week by gaining from the People's Bank of China cutting the Reserve Requirement Ratio by 100 Basis Points, a move expected to increase lending into the economy. The S&P500 added 1.3% between Monday and Wednesday and the DAX gained 1.5% at that time. Thursday introduced some negative news on U.S. markets. Specifically, the weekly Initial Jobless Claims was published at 295K, versus a more optimistic analyst expectation of 287K. Additionally, March New Home Sales only managed only a print of 481K, well below the analyst consensus of 515K. This added some volatility to the markets (leading to that aforementioned record at the NASDAQ).

Somewhat expectedly, the Eurozone Finance Minister Meeting, on Friday, didn't achieve a resolution to the Greek issue. However comments on the media, suggesting that progress has been made have helped support the markets.

At the end of the day, it has been a rather positive week, with equities, globally, ending in the green. The S&P 500 gained 1.7% during the week and the NASDAQ surged no less than 3.25%. In Europe the DAX increased by 1%, and the CAC 40 added 1.1%, as did the FTSE 100.