The major U.S. market averages inched higher today as investors largely waited on the sidelines in anticipation of tommorrow's nonfarm payroll number from September. The Dow edged higher by 6 points at the close today. The Nasdaq gained 4 points for the day. The S&P 500 was actually the strongest of the three on a percentage basis, gaining 0.21% or just over 3 points. 
None of the major sectors moved very much on the day today, so there were no huge gainers or losers in the sectors. Energy stocks actually started the day down quite appreciably, but after crude oil and gasoline prices both surged later in the day, energy stocks became a leadership group.
Leading the energy sector higher was National-Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) which has nearly tripled now in the past 52 weeks and gained 2.02% today. Global Industries (Nasdaq:GLBL) gained 4.64% today. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) shares went higher by 2.7% on strong volume. Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) gained 2.62% to lead the natural gas stocks higher on the day.
Financial stocks were also quite strong today for the most part. Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) continued its recent impressive rebound, gaining another 2.04%. The Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) showed the way for insurance stocks, gaining 2.35%. Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) shares finished higher by 2.94%. MA shares have now gone up 30 straight points since their lows on September 8th.
Most major retail stocks were lower today as investors took profits from recent gains in the group. J.C. Penney Company (NYSE:JCP) lost 2.38% on the day, while Kohl's Corporation (NYSE:KSS) lost 1.82%. Sears Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:SHLD) bucked the trend, gaining 2.26% after news that activist William Ackman purchased 5 million shares of the company recently.
New 52 Week Highs
- Hansen Natural (Nasdaq:HANS) This stock has to win an award for strangest trading action of the day today. The stock started the day plunging by up to 6%, only to rally through the day and finish higher by 6.64%. The stock was actually downgraded today as well.
- Immucor (Nasdaq:BLUD) Shares hit a new high after a stronger than expected profit report. Side note: nice ticker symbol for a blood testing equipment company!
- Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) shares gained 0.97% today.
52 Week Lows
- The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) I have to admit this is a strange one. You would think HSY would be doing well in this market environment.
- The Wet Seal Inc. (Nasdaq:WTSLA) shares fell 18.55% after an earnings warning.
The internals of the market were actually fairly positive today. The advancing issues led declining issues about 60%-40% on the NYSE and 53%-42% on the NASDAQ. Volume figures certainly point to the fact that many investors waited on the sidelines for tommorrow's data. The Nasdaq finished at 1.6 billion shares today, a good amount below recent days where it often reaches 1.9 or even 2 billion shares traded.
Interestingly, if you look at the sectors as shown on Google Finance all the 12 major sectors were higher on the day, though many of them were by very small amounts.
The nonfarm payrolls number will certainly be all over the business news tommorrow after last month's terrible report. I am certainly looking forward to seeing what these numbers show tommorrow to see if last month was a trend or a blip.
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