The Dow Claws Back

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, markets plummeted across the board on eurozone worries and concerns the domestic economy isn't as strong as recent reports indicate. However, a new jobs report is boosting markets as all eyes turn to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and its big press conference this afternoon. More on that in a minute, but first, let's check into how the three major indexes are faring today.

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

All three indexes are down over half a percent, with the Nasdaq edging out the S&P 500 as the trading session's current leader. The Dow is performing better, but with only two components showing tenuous gains, "better" is clearly a relative term.

With large financial institutions throwing their heft behind the deal between Greece and its private creditors, it has raised hopes that potential disaster will at least be temporarily averted. That, combined with two bits of domestic news, has Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) shares leading all Dow outperformers with a 2.5% gain. A leading payroll processing firm showing stronger-than-expected jobs growth last month, along with a Wall St. Journal report hinting that another round of quantitative easing is not off the table, has investors brimming with renewed excitement.

But as mentioned earlier, all eyes are on Apple and its new iPad release party. New features include a retina display that quadruples the number of pixels on the screen; 4G LTE for faster connectivity; and a better processor, the Apple A5X quad-core chip. Importantly, Apple managed to hold the line on price at the same $499, despite rumors that the company would be forced to charge more. Even though the product doesn't have a unique look compared to the iPad 2, the under-the-hood improvements and new display should drive massive sales. Both Dow telecom components and Apple partners AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) are up roughly in line with the index, but the companies should expect a rash of new subscribers starting on March 16, when the new iPad becomes available.

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