Today was a wild one on the street. For the first hour it was off to the races, then through the midday it was more modest gains, then around 3:30 pm it was fairly large losses, then when the bell finally sounded stocks finished with very slight gains. Today felt like a whole week of trading packed into one day. Stocks initially cheered the news that the Fed will work with other central banks to deal with the credit crunch, but in the end investors mostly came up thinking it wouldn't be enough. The Dow gained 41 points on the day. The Nasdaq rose by 19 points. The S&P 500 gained 9 points, or 0.61%. 
When the final bell had sounded there were some notable winners and losers on the street today, as different sectors took decidedly different paths today.
Energy stocks were the largest gainers today as crude oil prices skyrocketed higher by more than $4 per barrel today. Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) shares rose by 3.65% today to lead the oil and gas operations group. Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) shares gained 5% today on higher than normal volume. Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) shares rocketed higher by 7.11% today. The majors were also pretty strong today as ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) gained 2.06% and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) gained 2.10%.
Also very strong today were the consumer non-cyclicals. These stocks generally do very well in poor economic times because of the consistency of their growth. PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) gained 2.11% and hit a new 52 week high today. Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) rose just less than 1% and settled just short of a new high. Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) rose by 0.85% today and has risen almost 5 points from its level of just 4 weeks ago.
Technology stocks were mostly higher today. VMWare (NYSE:VMW) gained 4.13% today. Baidu.com (Nasdaq:BIDU) gained another 2.85% today, continuing its recent strength. Microchip Technology (Nasdaq:MCHP) shares rose 4.7% today after an analyst raised estimates on the company.
Today's standout sector on the downside was the financial sector. Especially hard hit were the companies that are closely related to mortgages and have already been crushed in the past year or so. IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE:IMB) was crushed today, falling 12.75% to a new 52 week low. Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM) fell 7.81% on massive volume and hit a new 52 week low as well today. The regional banks were also crushed today. Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq:FITB) fell 6.05%. National City Corporation (NYSE:NCC) plunged 5.00% to a new 52 week low today. PNC Financial Services (NYSE:PNC) saw its shares lose 3.55% on the day today.
It seems as if the Federal Reserve's plan to provide a global injection of cash, the first since 9/11, did not impress investors terribly much after some digestion of the news today. Today was one of the crazier trading days I have seen in quite some time, with some major intraday swings on no major breaking news. After all was said and done, given the beginning of the trading day I would have to say that this session was a real disappointment to the bulls. The fact that we were able to rally and get slightly back into the green today was not able to break the negative tone in the market right now. I believe the market will become increasingly data dependent in the coming weeks, watching for any potential sign of a recession already under way or coming soon.
One thing is for sure, volatility is back and in a big way!
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