Wall Street falters after 7 day advance

Birmingham Star Wednesday 9th February, 2011

U.S. stocks finally took a breather Wednesday after a rally which has seen the major indices climb more than 5% in the last five weeks.

The Dow however confounded critics by making a last gasp clutch at positive territory late in the day, and managed o finish a few points ahead.

Of major concern was the testimony of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who told the House of Reprsentatives Wednesday unemployment would remain mired at current levls, close to 10%.

Until Wednesday the Dow Jones, which has risen 5.67% in 2011 had risen for seven days in a row.

“The winning streak is coming to an end. But the market is overbought and a bit of a cooling-off period is warranted; I could see a pullback in the 2%-to-3% range,” Andrew Fitzpatrick, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates told MarketWatch.

“The longer-term picture is still very much intact, with an improving economy and improving earnings leading to higher stock prices,” he said.

At the close of trading Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrials extended its rally to 8 consecutive days, ending up 6.74 points or 0.06% at 12,239.89.

The Nasdaq Composite was off 7.98 points or 0.28% at 2,789.07.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 3.69 points or 0.28% at 1,320.88.

The U.S. dollar was mixed. It lost ground against the euro which was trading at 1.3730 around the New York close on Wednesday.

The Japanese yen was little changed at 82.40. The British pound was a tad higher at 1.6103.

The Swiss franc rose to 0.9578. The Australian dollar fell to 1.0116, as did the New Zealand dollar to 0.7721.

The Canadian dollar rose marginally to 0.9937.