S&P 500 Turns Positive For The Year

The S&P 500 rallied hard today, outpacing the Nasdaq, and managed to close above its year-end 2008 levels (903.25). That puts the index in positive territory for the year (+0.44%) for the first time since Jan. 8th.

Here is a quick summary of today's action:

• Wall Street extended recent gains, driving the S&P 500 above 900 and allowing the index to wipe out its loss for the year.
• Better-than-expected economic reports and positive analyst comments were the catalysts for the advance. March pending home sales posted their first back-to-back increase in almost a year, while construction spending ended a sixth month slide.
• Commodity producers rallied as China’s manufacturing expanded for the first time in nine months and the price of oil hit a five-week high.
• Intel led the technology group higher following an analyst upgrade. The shares rose 82 cents to 16.66.
• Financial stocks rose as the market anticipated banks have avoided the worst case scenario. Bank of America denied a report it was trying to raise $10 billion and shares closed up 1.68 at 10.38.
• On the earnings front, Sprint Nextel reported a surprise profit and the shares jumped 33 cents to 5.00.
• The Dow closed up 214.33 points at 8426.74.
• NYSE volume totaled over 1.7 billion shares.
• The S&P 500 was up 29.72 points.
  The Nasdaq gained 44.4.
• Advancing issues beat decliners by 5-1 on the NYSE and by 7-2 on the Nasdaq.
  The 10-year Treasury note was steady to yield 3.16%.