Dow crosses the 14,000 mark for the first time and IBM accounts for half of Dow’s gain

US Market reached another new milestone today, Thursday, 19 July, 2007 as Dow crossed the 14,000 mark for the first time while going into close. Upbeat earnings report from IBM last night mainly powered the rally today as market sensed that the forthcoming earnings season won’t be as anemic in nature as anticipated earlier.

Stocks pared some gains after the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting. But investors quickly reversed course and returned to buying. At the same time, the market saw big gains in energy stocks as crude oil moved nearly to $76.

The Dow Jones Industrials closed higher by 82.19 points at 14000.41. Tech heavy Nasdaq gained 20.6 points to close at 2720. S&P 500 closed higher by 6.9 points at 1553.

Twenty out of the thirty Dow stocks closed in green today. IBM, H-P, Microsoft and Honeywell were the top most Dow winners today. Alcoa was a major loser today and the stock lost 7% today on a report the aluminum giant is not longer being eyed as an acquisition target by BHP Billiton.

IBM surged 4.3% to a new multi-year high today and this helped vault the Dow back above 14,000. The company posted its strongest quarterly performance in five years last night and then boosted its full-year EPS forecasts.

H-P and Juniper Network power further rally in Technology

When market opened in the morning, stocks opened substantially higher right out of the gate. Initial claims unexpectedly falling to the lowest level (301K) in two months also gave the bulls something to cheer about.

IDC saying Hewlett-Packard's Q2 market share rose to 19.3%, capturing the top ranking in the PC market for a fourth consecutive quarter, also helped earmark Computer Hardware as today's second best performing S&P industry group.

Juniper Networks also helped lift the tech sector, jumping almost 12% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to buy from neutral.

The FOMC minutes showed that the central bank's rate-making body remained concerned about the depths of the housing slump and the subprime mortgage crisis. Members said they were also worried about the falling dollar and the global commodity demand as inflation sources.

The absence of leadership from Financials prevented a more convincing move to the upside for the indices. Financials got an early lift after Bank of America topped Wall Street expectations.

Google and Microsoft to dictate momentum tomorrow

Crude oil futures increased today and crossed the $76 mark during intra day trading. Traders attributed crude's strength to French oil major Total's production cut at an oil platform in Angola. Last week's decline in U.S. crude and gasoline supplies and upcoming contract expiration to lift the August contract also perked up the prices.

In addition, news that China's second-quarter gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 11.9% also supported the outlook for robust global energy demand. Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for August delivery closed at $75.92/barrel (higher by $0.87/barrel or 1.2%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 24% this year.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 1.5 billion shares exchanged hands, while 2.2 billion were traded on the Nasdaq. Advancing issues beat decliners 5 to 3 on the NYSE and by 17 to 11 on the Nasdaq.

For tomorrow, with no economic data scheduled, Microsoft and Google’s earning reports that came out today after close, will dictate market momentum. Tomorrow morning, Dow components Caterpillar and Citigroup will come out with their earnings report.