BULLS MARCH ON

Bullish Parade Down Wall Street
The bulls kicked off March on a high note today, as the Street cheered a sliver of encouraging economic data, a slew of merger-and-acquisition news, and some potential aid for debt-riddled Greece.

On the economic front, the Commerce Department said personal spending inched 0.5% higher in January, surpassing economists' predictions for a 0.4% increase.
Elsewhere, bulls across the globe rejoiced on speculation that euro-zone countries may reveal a bailout deal to help Greece alleviate its growing debt concerns. Greek officials today met with members of the European Union, escalating hopes that the healthier countries' banks will join forces to buy some of Greece's government bonds.

Against this hopeful backdrop, all three major market indexes started the month on bullish footing, settling comfortably north of the breakeven line.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA – 10,403.79) added 78.5 points, or 0.8%, as 26 of its 30 components finished higher. Pacing the advancing equities were tech titans Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Intel Corp. (INTC), while American Express (AXP), General Electric (GE), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) bucked the trend.

Thanks to today's advance, the Dow closed atop the round-number 10,400 level for only the second time since Jan. 20.

Elsewhere, the S&P 500 Index (SPX – 1,115.71) advanced 11.2 points, or 1%, to settle atop its 50-day moving average for the first time since mid-January.

Finally, the Nasdaq Composite (COMP – 2,273.57) bested both of its broad-market brethren, climbing 35.3 points, or 1.6%, to close above the 2,250 level for the first time since Jan. 21.

The intraday chart shows the bulk of the buying occurred in the first two hours. The rest of the session was just a sideways drift. The sector action maintained the upside bias we saw earlier.

As noted above, the afternoon was relatively quiet so nothing really changed from what was discussed earlier. However, with the close in place, I will now be keying on last week's highs. The levels shown above are still the "major" short-term points to keep in mind, but watching the best levels from last week offers a way to guage the relative buying demand. The most immediate "need" is that the Dow needs to join the SPX & COMP in staging a mini-breakout.

And with this, concludes the U.S, market report.

Have an enjoyable trading day.