Sharp rise on crude freefall, Bernanke remarks

Small-cap stocks pushed higher Tuesday, bolstered by a sharp pullback in crude oil prices that allowed a little breathing room toward inflation fears and the consumer spending picture. In addition, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank could extend the emergency lending window to strapped financial institutions, which took a little heat off the credit crunch — at least momentarily. The Russell 2000 (NYSE:IWM), gained 24.46, or 3.72%, to 682.72, generating the largest one-day gain since March 18 and the third largest one-day percentage rally of the year.

Small-cap stocks were noticeably stronger than their large-cap brethren, which were dragged down by significant losses on key oil stocks such as Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), which was down 0.7% heading toward the close, Chevron (NYSE:CVX), off 1% and oil services stock Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE:SLB), which shed 3.7%.

Before the stock market open earlier today, Bernanke’s comments erased solid overnight losses in stock index futures, and helped alleviate mounting worldwide concern about the health of the banking system. Before the Bernanke rescue, European shares were sinking, paced by a slide to five-year lows in bank stocks, and elsewhere around the world global stock index products slipped into bear market territory.

Even though the tone improved with today’s recovery in equities, the market is still clearly in a tenuous position fretting about high energy costs amid sluggish . . .

For access to the full article, you must be a registered member - it's FREE.

Already a member? Please log in below