NEW YORK – The S&P 500 rose near a seven-week high on Wednesday as investors bet the upcoming earnings season and more merger activity will continue to lift equities.

The S&P 500 inched closer to 1,344, which would be the highest since June 2008 and has been a resistance level where continued buying could lead to a technical breakout.

The Dow industrials hit its highest intraday since 2008.

Miner shares rose as gold prices rallied to a record high against a backdrop of a weaker U.S. dollar and investor worries over inflation and unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. Silver touched a fresh 31-year peak.

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX – News) gained 2.6 percent to $58.06. Gold for June delivery rallied to a record high at $1,463.30 an ounce.

“There’s optimism earnings will be good for the first quarter,” said Giri Cherukuri, head trader at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois.

“Semiconductors are up on expectation of more M&A activity in the tech sector,” he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI – News) added 33.57 points, or 0.27 percent, to 12,427.47. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (^SPX – News) rose 4.71 points, or 0.35 percent, to 1,337.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC – News) gained 19.72 points, or 0.71 percent, to 2,810.91.

Broadcom Corp (BRCM – News) shares gained 4 percent to $40 after Oppenheimer raised its rating on the chipmaker and set a price target of $55.

Purchases of major items sent German industrial orders soaring above expectations in February, data showed on Wednesday, in a further sign Europe’s largest economy was outshining its neighbors. Orders grew by 2.4 percent in the month, compared to the Reuters forecast for an increase of 0.6 percent.

Irish Central Bank says Ireland’s banks need euro24 bln ($34 bln) more to withstand future shocks

DUBLIN — Ireland’s ailing banks need another euro24 billion ($34 billion) in cash, overwhelmingly from the government, in a move that is expected to leave all of them under state control and facing a complete overhaul, officials said Thursday.

The Central Bank of Ireland made that recommendation as it published pessimistic results for stress tests on four banks — a condition of Ireland’s international bailout. The tests presume that the country’s real estate market will keep falling and produce tens of thousands of home foreclosures, a problem that is just starting to bite.

Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan said all four banks would need enough money to cover mammoth write-offs of dud property loans and to boost their cash reserves to new, higher standards. He said these cash requirements can’t be met by any of the banks in question, so each will have to receive funding from Ireland’s emergency European Union-International Monetary Fund credit line.

Ireland’s new government welcomed the findings as grim but realistic — and unveiled plans to shrink the country’s financial sector through a series of mergers and asset selloffs.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan told parliament that Ireland intended to create “two pillar banks” based on the market leaders, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks.

Noonan said he planned to take majority state control of Irish Life & Permanent, sell off its lucrative pensions and investment arms, and transfer the remaining parts to one of the two survivors.

He said the fourth and smallest bank targeted by Thursday’s stress tests, Educational Building Society, would be merged into Allied Irish.

Noonan stressed that he wanted the extra billions to start flowing into all four banks “without delay.”

Honohan said Ireland would over-invest in all four banks now to ensure that foreign investors will start lending to them again. He said the four banks “should have the needed capital even to meet the market’s gloomy prognostications.”

The EU and IMF in November made the offer of loans, worth up to euro67.5 billion ($95 billion), conditional on Ireland’s banks being tested again to determine a worst-case scenario for funding. The EU-IMF bailout fund earmarked up to euro35 billion for bolstering the banks, so Thursday’s figures come in well below that daunting limit.

Nonetheless, the new figure would take the estimated total cost of Ireland’s bank-bailout efforts since 2009 to euro70 billion ($99 billion) — some euro15,500 ($22,000) for every man, woman and child in Ireland.

Ireland has already put euro46 billion into its banks since 2009, when it began nationalizing them to prevent their collapse — and took the country to the brink of bankruptcy as a consequence.

Honohan said it was virtually certain that, as part of the next infusion of capital, the last two banks to avoid majority state ownership — Bank of Ireland and Irish Life & Permanent — would both be forced down that road.

The state already owns 36 percent of Bank of Ireland but has yet to take a stake in Irish Life & Permanent, Ireland’s major provider of private pensions and residential mortgages. The government already owns 93 percent of Allied Irish Banks and fully owns the Educational Building Society. It also fully nationalized and is shutting down two other banks, Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide, that were not targets of Thursday’s stress tests.

Thursday’s plan calls for Allied Irish to receive euro13.3 billion more; Bank of Ireland euro5.2 billion; Irish Life & Permanent euro4 billion; and EBS euro1.5 billion.

The banks will be given the opportunity to raise funds themselves, but none has been able to borrow from foreign lenders over the past year because their dud and suspect loans greatly outstrip their market value.

Irish Life & Permanent, for example, has about euro19 billion in deposits and euro39 billion in loans, chiefly mortgages — and a stock price that values the company at just euro110 million.

The bank announced its own plan to sell its most attractive units, its pensions and investment businesses, in two stock market flotations. That would leave its retail bank, Permanent TSB, to be folded into one of the two survivors.

Irish Life & Permanent’s chief executive, Kevin Murphy, called the announcement of the company’s planned dismantling “extremely disappointing.”

Irish Life & Permanent said it hoped its asset sales would net euro1.1 billion, while it could drum up a further euro600 million on its own. But the remaining euro2.3 billion required would come from the government, a step that will lead to issuing the government new shares and hand control of the bank to the state.

The Central Bank’s goal, in part, is to reduce the banks’ current loan-to-deposit ratios to 122.5 percent by 2013. The banks’ current ratio is more than 180 percent, meaning that the banks have loaned out nearly twice as much as they have on deposit.

Ireland’s Central Bank currently is providing euro89 billion in short-term loans to Irish banks, the European Central Bank a similar amount. Ireland has been pressing the ECB to provide a new medium-term loan product for Ireland’s banks rather than the short-term facility, which requires loans to be renewed every two weeks at relatively high interest rates.

NEW YORK — Stocks climbed Wednesday as strong company job growth in March lifted investors’ spirits ahead of the government’s jobs report on Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 63 points, or 0.5%, at 12,342. The S&P 500 was higher by 6 points, or 0.5%, at 1326, and the Nasdaq was ahead by 11 points, or 0.4%, at 2768.

Companies added 201,000 jobs in March, according to Automatic Data Processing’s employment change report, which excludes government jobs. Job growth was slightly milder than gains of 210,000 that economists had been expecting, according to Briefing.com. In February, private sector payrolls rose by 208,000.

U.S. stocks were also getting a lift from a surge in Japanese stocks, which came as exporters were helped by a drop in the yen. Business operations in Japan are also stabilizing in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Japan’s Nikkei jumped 2.6% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.7%. London’s FTSE was adding 0.5% and the DAX in Frankfurt was gaining 1.8%.

74% of shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange were gaining ground while 22% were declining, during a session that saw volume of 121 million. On the Nasdaq, 257 million shares changed hands.

Telecoms AT&T(T_) and Verzion(VZ_) continued to trade near the top of the Dow, alongside Exxon Mobil(XOM_). Home Depot(HD_) and Boeing(BA_) were among the Dow’s biggest laggards.

Cephalon(CEPH_) is facing a hostile bid from Valeant Pharmaceuticals(VRX_), which is offering $73 a share. The bid represents a 24% premium to Cephalon’s Tuesday closing price of $58.75. Cephalon’s stock is gaining 28% to $75.22 and Valeant’s stock was up by 8.3% at $48.06.

Stocks erase earlier losses from weak reports on consumer confidence and home prices

NEW YORK — Stocks edged higher Tuesday, overcoming earlier losses from weak reports on consumer confidence and home prices.

Home Depot Inc. rose 2.7 percent, the most of the 30 large companies in the Dow Jones industrial average. The retailer said it would buy $1 billion of its own stock with cash from selling bonds.

Stocks started lower after a report showed that home prices fell in 19 of the 20 large U.S. cities tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Washington was the only city in which prices rose. Prices have fallen 3 percent in the past year.

Meanwhile rising gas prices helped drag down consumer confidence in March. The Conference Board said its confidence index dropped more than expected to 63.4 from 72 in February. The fall comes after five straight months of gains. A reading of 90 signals a strong economy.

The Conference Board says expectations about inflation rose dramatically, and expectations about income gains soured.

Evidence of higher gas prices hitting household spending also showed up Monday in February’s report from the Commerce Department. Consumer spending rose, but most of the increase was used to cover rising gas prices.

Rising oil prices have pushed gasoline prices up 25 cents in the past month. The national average for a gallon of gas hit $3.58 Monday. That’s the highest price for this time of year.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 29 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,225. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1 point to 1,311. The Nasdaq rose 12, or 0.4 percent, to 2,743.

Lennar Corp. fell 2 percent on news that housing prices dropped in most major cities even after the homebuilder reported a surprise profit for the latest quarter.

General Electric Co. fell 0.6 percent after announcing plans to buy 90 percent of Converteam, a France-based electrical equipment maker.

BestTopPennyStocks.com sent out an Alert on IMNS today:

STAR8 CORP (PK: IMNS), our alert from last Thursday night, jumped off to a great start on Friday gaining more than 15% and closing on the day’s high! This is a GREAT sign and the BTPS team believes excitement over IMNS will continue to grow today!
 
Make sure IMNS is on your watchlist; this is a company that may be on the verge of a breakout. If you have not yet begun your research on IMNS, now is the time. Below are some highlights to get you started:
 
BREAKING NEWS: On Friday, after the close, IMNS announced the MAJOR news below:
Star8 Corporation Completes Distribution Agreement for African Region With Wireless Trade Group
 
STAR8 CORP (PK: IMNS) is a global provider of low cost full-featured mobile email phones. IMNS’s focus is to provide a low cost alternative to the more expensive smart phones available in the market today. Star8 is strictly focused on emerging markets where the mobile operator subscriber base is predominantly prepaid.
 
Check out the company’s line of pre-paid phones here:
The Axiom Series / The Evolution of Smart
 
Global shipments of mobile handsets are forecast to be approximately 1.7 Billion in 2011.
 
Top 4 Reasons to Watch IMNS
 
IMNS is targeting a niche market, by focusing on emerging markets where the mobile operator subscriber base is primarily prepaid. These markets do not provide their subscribers with a subsidy on phone purchases which leaves a very small percentage of the subscriber base with the ability to afford the more costly smart phones.
Star8 is well positioned to capitalize on the Low Cost Mobile Messaging Handset market. Global shipments of mobile handsets have been forecast to reach 1.7 billion in 2011.
In international markets there is a huge unmet demand for affordable mobile e-mail service with the functionality of a Smartphone but designed for the pre-paid market. IMNS plans to capitalize on this enormous market by marketing their products to mobile users in Canada, U.S., Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Africa and Latin America through existing relationships.
IMNS has already completed the development of the Axiom series mobile phones.  They announced the launch of the Axiom series this past Monday, March 21, 2011.
 
Star8’s smart handset is targeted at the pre-paid mobile phone market, delivering an ultra low cost mobile mail and messaging product. This solution is being broadly marketed to pre-paid consumers giving Star8 a large potential market from which to draw customers.
 
Be sure to visit the company’s website:
www.star8corp.com
 
Also, feel free to continue your research here:
www.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=IMNS.PK

BloombergPennyStocks.com sent out an Alert on ADCF this morning:

Our New Super Hot Play is ADCF
Advanced Defense Technologies Inc
ADCF is our new breakout stock.
 
 This is the ideal time to take a look at a company like ADCF that is an essential part of the advanced communication spectrum needed in todays wartime environment.
 
ADCF is already producing equipment to be used by our military forces.
 
ADCF has hit its 52 week low recently and we think there is potential to bounce off this low and come close if not higher than the 60-70 cent range where it was just weeks ago.
 
We think the chart looks like it could break out on news and get back to where it was a few weeks ago.
 
ADCF has a very low float of 10,150,000 according to www.otcmarkets.com
 
They are in a multibillion dollar industry that becomes more necessary every day to protect ourselves and our country.
 
 
 
Here are some recent headlines on what ADCF has already accomplished after going public less than a year ago!!  It looks like they are on the fast track to achieving their goals.  All the news we have seen has been positive and its only a matter of time before a huge contract comes in and the stock rockets over a dollar.
 
ADTI’s Three Dimensional Radar “Eyesight” Slated for Use in Global Military and Defense Systems

ANAHEIM, CA, Mar 07, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Advanced Defense Technologies, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: ADCF), a developer of breakthrough technologies for military defense, homeland security and commercial communications systems, announced today that the Company has launched its RADEYE program. RADEYE radar is essentially the development of a single, low cost, lightweight, compact size ADTI radar device that not only can detect an object at a far distance but can also determine its speed and whether the object is coming or going. The Company’s three-dimensional radar eyesight is an innovative system slated for use in global military and defense systems. ADTI’s technology has been refined and enhanced by a number of Phase I projects and two Phase II projects with the US Air Force and the US Army.
 
 
Advanced Defense Technologies (ADTI) Designing RF Circuits, Subsystems and Systems for the Over $1 Billion per Year Defense and Surveillance Applications Sector

ANAHEIM, CA, Mar 11, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Advanced Defense Technologies, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: ADCF), developer of breakthrough technologies for military defense, homeland security and commercial communications systems, announced today the Company is designing RF circuits, subsystems and systems for the over $1 billion per year defense and surveillance applications sector. ADTI’s microwave transceiver has instantaneous operating bandwidth of over 500 MHz that can support the data transmission and receiving speeds of 1 billion bits per second. The applications for this technology have been focused on military defense systems; specifically in the areas of advanced radar and communications. The Company’s microwave/millimeter-wave circuits, subsystems and the system designs have been developed under SBIR Programs with Government Agencies including NASA, DARPA, a prestigious defense contractor (Phillips Labs), and the US Military (USAF, ARMY, NAVY and MDA) in order to meet the US military need for increased operating bandwidths, higher efficiencies, small compact sizes and lower cost.
BCC Research forecasts that the defense and surveillance applications sector will grow fastest resulting in an almost 5% rise in market share. This sector was worth $1.2 billion in 2009 and is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% to reach $2.1 billion by 2014.
 
Advanced Defense Technologies, Inc.
Products & Technologies.
More »
 
Advanced Defense Technologies, Inc. (“ADTI”) develops technologies for military defense systems, homeland security, and wideband communications systems. The company offers multi-band phased array antennas, T/R modules, wideband transceivers, diplexer/multiplexer networks, electronically steered antennas, and wideband RF antenna systems for high data rate multi-point communications, mobile communications, and wideband tracking radar and sensor systems. In addition, ADTI specializes in solving unique problems through custom designs to meet the special requirements for sophisticated antenna systems. ADTI is based in Anaheim, California.
 
Breakthroughs in Technology
The major technology breakthroughs resulting in the circuits and subsystems with increased bandwidth and efficiency have been accomplished under a number of Department of Defense Phase I and Phase II SBIR contracts including:
•Multi-band Phased Array Antenna Technology for Global Communication Systems, sponsored by USASMDC. Contract Number DASG60-03-C-0082.*
•Small size, multi-frequency and multi-beam phased array antenna, sponsored by USAF, Wright-Patterson Lab. OH USAF Contract: F33615 – 99 C -1406.*
•Multi-band Air Defense/Air Search Radar. Contract Number M67854-04-C-2003
•Microwave power transfer using microwave integrated circuit technology, sponsored by NASA Johnson Space Center.*
•Alternate power sources for aerostats, sponsored by DARPA.*
•Quasi-optical power devices sponsored by the U.S. Army.*
•Space power and propulsion technology, sponsored by USAF, Phillips Lab.*
•Advanced rectenna technology for space power, sponsored by DARPA.*
* ADTI owns the technology developed under RST Scientific Research, Inc., which was the company under which these contracts were awarded.
Important Technological Developments
The major technology breakthroughs resulting in the circuits and subsystems with increased bandwidth and efficiency have been accomplished under a number of Department of Defense Phase I and Phase II SBIR contracts including:
1. Transceivers to transmit at 10, 19, and 32 GHz and receive at 12, 21, and 35 GHz
•The entire system is full-duplex so that the transmit and receive links operate simultaneously using the same antenna array.
•The system architecture developed allows the entire phased array to operate using a single low-loss broadband phase shifter.
2. Multi-band phased array radar prototype operating from 3 to 20 GHz.
•The new phased array technology provides significant reduction in DC power consumption, size, volume and cost. The technology enhances system efficiency, reliability and compactness.
•The technology was developed in collaboration with Texas A&M University and demon strates electronically beam scanned antenna arrays in 2-D planes at X-band (8 to 12 GHz) in AZ and EL planes, and beam scanning capability from 8 GHz to 35 GHz.
 
Here are just a couple of their products they have been developing that are patented.
 
T/R Modules, Ultra-wideband Antennas
 
A unique, ultra wideband, low loss phase shifter operating from 2 to 40 GHz (US Patent Number 6,987,488) has been developed. This new phase shifter design (beam scan technology) provides solutions to the current design issues such as high cost, high DC power dissipation, size, weight and system complexity.
Using our new multi-line phase shifter design, the number of phase shifters and driver circuits in the phased array radar and communication systems are reduced by 4:1 ratio, providing a significant reduction in cost, size and power consumption in the radar and communication systems. Cost saving are greater than 15:1 over the conventional technologies.
Multi-band T/R modules (up to 40 GHz) are completely based on MMIC and MIC circuits
 
Low Loss Voltage Controlled Phase Shifters
A unique, ultra wideband, low loss phase shifter operating from 2 to 40 GHz (US Patent Number 6,987,488) has been developed. This new phase shifter design (beam scan technology) provides solutions to the current design issues such as high cost, high DC power dissipation, size, weight and system complexity.
Using our new multi-line phase shifter design, the number of phase shifters and driver circuits in the phased array radar and communication systems are reduced by 4:1 ratio, providing a significant reduction in cost, size and power consumption in the radar and communication systems. Cost saving are greater than 15:1 over the conventional technologies.
ADTI’s low loss phase shifter design operates with a frequency and bandwidth up to 40 GHz and beyond with less than 1 dB loss up to 20 GHz and less than 2 dB loss up to 40 GHz [US Patent No. 6,987,488]. The antenna system architecture developed allows the entire phased array to operate using a single low-loss broadband phase shifter. Typical performance of our phase shifter design is shown in Figure 1.
These phase shifters require less than 1 mA current, thus very low power dissipation. Our phase shifter design based on multi-line configuration is capable of controlling a number of radiating antenna elements, simultaneously with a single voltage. Using such antenna architecture, the number of phase shifters and drivers are drastically reduced in the antenna system resulting in reduced size, reduced power consumption and less system complexity.

Consumer spending and incomes rose in February, but Americans also paid more for gas

WASHINGTON — Americans earned a little more and spent a little more in February, thanks to a tax cut. But a big part of the extra money went to cover higher gas prices.

Consumer spending jumped 0.7 percent last month and personal incomes rose 0.3 percent, the Commerce Department said. Both gains reflected a Social Security tax cut, which boosted take-home pay.

Still, high gas prices soaked up much of the spending increase. Once inflation was removed, the rise was a more moderate 0.3 percent.

After-tax incomes were also hampered by inflation. Once accounting for higher prices, incomes actually fell 0.1 percent.

Economists are concerned that if energy costs keep going up, that will leave consumers with less disposable income and that would lead to slower economic growth. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic growth.

Separately, the National Association of Realtors said more people signed contracts to purchase homes in February. But the gains weren’t enough to signal a rebound in the housing market.

Higher gas prices and the persistently weak housing market are two of the biggest challenges facing an economy that is trying to gain momentum nearly two years after the recession officially ended.

Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the latest data on incomes and spending provided “yet more evidence that higher prices are denting economic growth.”

Dales said it was likely that consumer spending will grow only 2 percent to 2.5 percent in the current January-March quarter. That would be down sharply from the 4 percent increase in consumer spending in the October-December period, the fastest pace in four years. Higher oil prices are threatening to sap that momentum this year.

In February, spending on durable goods rose 1.7 percent. Much of that strength came from the purchase of new cars. Still, spending on nondurable goods rose 1.5 percent, reflecting higher prices for gasoline.

The big rise in spending and smaller increase in incomes pushed the household saving rate down to 5.8 percent of after-tax incomes last month. That compared to 6.1 percent in January.

An inflation measure tied to consumer spending that is followed by the Federal Reserve rose 0.4 percent in February, the biggest one-month gain in nearly three years. But excluding food and energy, this inflation gauge was up a more moderate 0.2 percent. Over the past 12 months, core inflation, which excludes food and energy, is up a modest 0.9 percent.

Home sales picked up slightly in February, one month before the spring buying season officially began.

The National Association of Realtors says its index of sales agreements for homes rose 2.1 percent last month to a reading of 90.8. Signings rose in every region but the Northeast.

Still, the index is below 100, which is considered a healthy level. The last time it reached that point was in April, the final month people could qualify for a home-buying tax credit.

Contract signings are usually a good indicator of where the housing market is heading. That’s because there’s usually a one- to two-month lag between a sales contract and a completed deal.

WhispersFromWallStreet.com sent out an alert on AMPW:

WOW, We were right about the alert for today. It was ready to break
out just like we said making a price gain of 73% at the high.

Our next alert isn’t so new. Many of you made money with it the
last time we mentioned it.

The last time we mentioned this stock it went from 80 cents up to
2.18 for a 172% price gain in January.

The stock came down to its support area and could be ready to break
out again.

Our new alert is American Power Corp., AMPW, and the stock closed
Tuesday at .77 cents.

Please begin your research here www.americanpowerco.com and
here http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AMPW.OB&ql=0

Here is some information for those that missed it last time.

AMPW is an energy company based in Denver, Colorado.

AMPW acquires near-term, large-scale coal projects in close
proximity to national transportation links.

AMPW closed a financing agreement for total gross proceeds of $10
million through a 2.5-year stock issuance agreement with a European
institutional investor.

AMPW owns 29,000 acres in Montana called the Pace Coal Project.

In 1979 Mobil Oil Co. (now ExxonMobil) drilled 30 holes over 14,000
of the project`s acreage.

It was determined that both the quality and the quantity of coal on
the Pace acreage was high. Several independent reports were
commissioned based on the development work undertaken by Mobil Oil,
determining there could be in excess of 410 million tons of high
volatility bituminous coal potential on the Pace acreage.

AMPW may be shaping up to be a desirable acquisition target.

This industry has been seeing some acquisitions recently.

Walter Energy recently acquired Western Coal for $3.2 billion.

Rio Tinto recently offered $3.5 billion for African coal producer
Riversdale Mining.

AMPW trades very heavy for an OTC stock so it is easy to get in and
out of.

AMPW is back down to a historical support area.

Last time we mentioned AMPW it made a 170% price gain in weeks.

Since selling off, AMPW may have reached a desirable level for
another big move.

Energy economists looking for signs that Americans have cut back on fuel purchases

NEW YORK — Oil prices are higher as investors anticipate a government report on U.S. petroleum demand.

Benchmark crude added 73 cents at $105.70 per barrel Wednesday morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

After a sharp increase recently in oil and gasoline prices, economists are looking for signs that Americans are pushing back. A drop in consumption would suggest that motorists are starting to drive less.

So far, it’s not clear how consumers are reacting.

A Tuesday report by SpendingPulse showed that drivers cut back on fuel purchases last week, but the petroleum industry later reported that U.S. gasoline supplies dropped more than expected. The Energy Information Administration will release its numbers on oil and gasoline supplies later on Wednesday.

Average gas pump prices held steady at $3.55 per gallon on Wednesday.

Stocks drifted to the downside Tuesday as investors took a breather from a three-day rally amid high oil prices and ongoing turmoil in Libya.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 10 points after rallying in the previous session. The blue-chip index had risen 3.6 percent over the previous three sessions, after falling 4.3 percent from its Feb. 18, 2011 high.

Among Dow components, Bank of America [BAC  13.91    -0.14  (-1%)   ] and Caterpillar [CAT  106.41    -1.18  (-1.1%)   ] fell, while Verizon [VZ  37.00    0.54  (+1.48%)   ] and Boeing [BA  72.08    0.88  (+1.24%)   ] gained.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were also slightly lower. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, fell near 20.

Among the S&P 500’s key sectors, telecom and utilities gained, while industrials and consumer discretionary fell.

Investors appeared to be taking a pause Tuesday after three consecutive sessions of strong gains reversed a good portion of the losses sustained in the wake of the multiple disasters in Japan.

“I would say the impressive part of that is we handled a lot of very negative news, very unexpected, uncertain news, and saw a relatively minor pullback as a consequence,” said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist and technical analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

One reason the market didn’t continue to plunge is earnings season is just around the corner, and stocks tend to get a lift before earnings are released, Pado said.

“I think as the market moves to digest all the negative news, what’s new is that there’s positive news around the corner that people have been anticipating,” he said.

Pado also pointed to strength in companies such as Caterpillar [CAT  106.41    -1.18  (-1.1%)   ] or Boeing [BA  72.08    0.88  (+1.24%)   ] , which are benefiting from capital equipment expenditures triggered by the tax depreciation allowance. His expectation is the market could stall this week, with the S&P 500 trading around 1,300, but that the bull market run will be recharged, and the broad market index could reach 1,385 in the next couple of months.

Oil prices moved higher amid unrest in Yemen and after a third night of air strikes on the Libyan capital Tripoli. London Brent crude [LCOCV1  115.13    0.17  (+0.15%)] rose above $115 a barrel, while U.S. light sweet crude [CLCV1  103.55    1.22  (+1.19%)] rose above $104 a barrel.

“Oil isn’t going down anytime soon,” Rachel Ziemba, senior research analyst for Roubini Global Economics (RGE), told CNBC. “The question is, when it spikes to $150, do people expect it to stay there? What if it averages $115-120 a barrel?.”

RGE predicts that at that point the global economy would be spending almost 6 percent of GDP on oil. “In the past that has always preceded recession. We’re already starting to see a slowing global growth,” she said.

In Japan, the president of the Tokyo stock exchange told CNBC said the bourse was not considering shortening trading hours to deal with the electricity shortage Japan faces following the devastating earthquake. Shares in Japan rose 4 percent on Tuesday.

Sony [SNE  32.23    -0.19  (-0.59%)   ] said it would have to cut or stop production at five more plants in Japan because of supply chain disruptions.

And Toyota shares [TM  82.83    -0.92  (-1.1%)   ] slipped after the Japanese automaker decided to extend the vehicle-production halt which started on March 14 at all plants in Japan through March 26.

The CTIA wireless conference kicked off in Orlando. The future of Sprint [S  4.5385    0.176  (+4.03%)   ] , which plunged 14 percent on Monday after AT&T’s [T  28.14    -0.12  (-0.42%)   ] acquisition of T-Mobile, will be a key topic. Many investors had expected the logical partner for T-Mobile to be Sprint. Meanwhile, Raymond James upgraded Sprint to “strong buy” from “outperform,” saying the drop in the stock as a result of AT&T/T-Mobile merger announcement was “overdone.”

The CEO of Verizon Wireless [VZ  37.00    0.54  (+1.48%)   ] , meanwhile, said he had no interest in buying Sprint.

Research in Motion’s [RIMM  62.29    0.12  (+0.19%)   ] tablet, the Blackberry Playbook, will go on sale April 19 for $499.

Also on the tech front, Apple [AAPL  340.16    0.86  (+0.25%)   ] sued Amazon.com [AMZN  162.40    -2.125  (-1.29%)   ] over the online retailer’s use of “App Store”, saying Amazon.com improperly used the trademark to attract software developers.

Netflix [NFLX  219.97    7.13  (+3.35%)   ] gained after Credit Suisse raised the movie rental firm to “outperform” from “neutral.” Shares of rival Tivo [TIVO  8.64    -0.01  (-0.12%)   ] rose after news hedge fund Citadel Advisors accumulated a 5.3 percent stake in the company, according to a 13G filing.

Bank of New York Mellon [BNY  13.946    -0.005  (-0.04%)   ] traded flat even after news the bank would raise its dividend to 13 cents a share from 9 cents. The firm also said it would buy back up to $1.3 billion in stock this year.

Last week, the Fed told banks the results of stress tests on their capital positions, and indicated whether they could go ahead with dividend increases and stock buybacks, among other decisions affecting capital ratios.

Banks were trading mixed across the border, as most had traded higher in anticipation of dividend increases. JPMorgan [JPM  45.51    -0.12  (-0.26%)   ] and Wells Fargo [WFC  31.59    -0.29  (-0.91%)   ] traded lower.

On the earnings front, Walgreen [WAG  39.13    -2.84  (-6.77%)   ] fell even after the drugstore chain posted sales above expectations, while Dollar General [DG  30.77    0.39  (+1.28%)   ] rose after the retailer’s earnings doubled. 

After the close, software maker Adobe Systems [ADBE  32.53    0.19  (+0.59%)   ] and credit card company Discover [DFS  22.4008    -0.2392  (-1.06%)   ] are scheduled to report earnings results.

Shares of Tiffany [TIF  59.77    -0.45  (-0.75%)   ] declined slightly after the luxury jeweler cut its first quarter outlook because it had to close stores in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami. The company reported a 29 percent jump in fourth quarter income on strong demand both domestically and overseas.

And Hot Topic shares [HOTT  5.28    0.125  (+2.42%)   ] gained after the teen apparel retailer said CEO Betsy McLaughlin resigned.

On the health care front, Bristol-Myers Squibb [BMY  26.36    0.36  (+1.38%)   ] climbed the biopharmaceutical firm received good news from a trial for its melanoma drug Ipilimumab.

Meanwhile, regulatory pressure prompted Sanofi-Aventis [SNY  33.95    -0.05  (-0.15%)   ] and Merck [MRK  32.57    0.18  (+0.56%)   ] to abandon plans for a joint animal health powerhouse with $5 billion in sales.

Goldman Sachs raised its price targets on health insurers Aetna [AET  35.32    -0.25  (-0.7%)   ] , Cigna [CI  42.21    0.25  (+0.6%)   ] , Humana [HUM  64.94    -0.30  (-0.46%)   ] and UnitedHealth [UNH  42.68    -0.51  (-1.18%)   ] . However, shares were trading mixed.

On the economic front, the Federal Housing Finance Authority said home prices fell 0.3 percent in January from December, and the Richmond Fed Index came in at 20 for March, down from 25 in February.