The market was hovering around the unchanged level for most part of today’s trading before finishing modestly higher. The Dow advanced 30 points, bringing its total gains since July 15th to 900 points. The Nasdaq was closed higher by 22 points while the S&P 500 gained 5 points. Rising financial stocks and falling crude price were again two main themes during today’s trading. On the economic front, the latest Fed Beige book suggested that the pace of economic activity slowed somewhat since the last report. Five eastern Districts along with Chicago had a weakening or softening in their overall economies, compared with seven Districts that reported sluggish growth in the previous report. In addition, consumer spending was reported as sluggish or slowing in nearly all twelve Districts while price pressures were elevated or increasing.

Financials and transportations were among the biggest winners for the session. The latter was aided by another $4 plunge in crude price, which has lost over $23 since its peak. On the losers’ list, we again saw names such as energies and basic materials. Clearly, investors were concerned that demand destruction in both developed and developing countries would weigh heavily on commodity prices. The CRB commodity index lost another 1.7% and it is now over 12% below its peak. The US dollar was moving higher against most major currencies. Treasuries continued to slump as investors were preparing for rate hikes by the Fed. The VIX index moved slightly higher. The market breath was positive on both NYSE and Nasdaq with decent volume.