Close: The market recovered nicely following yesterday's drubbing, as a sell-off in oil coupled with improved trade balance data and a strong report from Cisco helped shrug off economic uncertainty related in part to credit risk concerns... While stocks plummeted yesterday amid speculation that many hedge funds may have experienced liquidity problems related to the volatility in General Motor's (GM 31.00 -0.53) shares and bonds, reports that S&P cut its credit rating on collateralized debt securities backed in part by GM and Ford bonds underpinned an overall sense of nervousness that left the market more risk averse throughout most of the session... But a late-day decline (-3.1%) in crude oil futures ($50.45/bbl -$1.62), under pressure after the IEA said weakening economic growth and higher fuel costs slowed oil demand growth in Q1 and following mixed oil inventories, provided the support buyers needed to step back into the market...
While crude oil supplies rose 2.7 mln barrels (consensus +1.25 mln) - the 13th increase in 14 weeks - and distillates rose 1.7 mln barrels (consensus +275K), a much less than an expected 187K barrel rise in gasoline inventories (consensus 900K) prevented oil futures from slipping much further intra-day... Meanwhile, the Mar. trade deficit narrowed to $55.0 bln, well below economists' expectations of $62 bln and a revised record of $60.6 bln in February - evidence that Q1 GDP probably grew faster than the 3.1% previously estimated, compelling economists to likely raise their Q2 GDP forecasts...
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