Major market indices rise Tuesday, but once again, volumes were light on lack of market moving data. The Dow (DJI) closed the session with a gain of 11.86 points to 10,564.38. The S&P 500 (SPX) added 1.95 points to 1,140.45. The Nasdaq (COMP) tacked on 8.47 points to 2,340.68. Volume came in at 1.12 billion shares on the NYSE and 2.55 billion shares on the Naz. Market breadth was positive by an 18-to-13 and 15-to-12 margin on the Big Board and Naz respectively.

Today was the one year anniversary of the market lows, which have seen the major market indices rise sharply. In fact, the Naz has tacked on more than 80 percent with the SPX up 67 percent. Some stocks have seen unbelievable gains this past year, including Genworth (GNW), up 1830 percent; Office Depot (ODP), rising 1030 percent and Fifth Third (FIFB) up 875 percent. The top performing Dow component was Bank of America (BAC), up 346 percent.

Cisco (CSCO) was in the news after the networking giant announced its new networking product. The company had been building up this announcement, saying the product would change the world of the Internet forever. The stock reached a new 52-week high intraday, but fell after the actual announcement. Cisco has a new router that is 12 times faster than any other router available. CSCO shares closed flat at $26.13 after hitting a new high at $26.48 intraday.

Economic news will be light this week, but traders did get good news about same-store sales this morning. The ICSC-Goldman report showed a year on year gain of 3.4 percent with the Redbook report showing a 3.1 percent increase year on year. These reports stated that traffic following bad weather led to strength. Of course, economists are still concerned about the future of consumer spending given weakness in the jobs report.

Financial stocks saw solid gains Tuesday with Citigroup (C) and AIG (AIG) leading the way. There is speculation that the government might restrict short sales on companies it has bailed out. Citi shares gained 7.3 percent to $3.82 with AIG rising 12.6 percent to $32.77. AIG has been in the news of late after announcing the sale of two divisions to help raise money to pay back the government.

Despite the CBOE Market Volatility Index (VIX) touching a support near 17.50, the bulls have been able to stay in control. However, volumes remain light and there are concerns that complacency could result in another correction, especially given the gains in stocks this past year.

Jody Osborne
Senior Writer & Options Strategist
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site