How the major stock indexes fared Monday (AP)

Stabilizing oil prices and signs that the economy may be improving pushed stock indexes higher Monday. The Standard and Poor's 500 index, the benchmark for most U.S. mutual funds, finished its third straight month of gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 95.89, or 0.8 percent, to at 12,226.34.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 7.34, or 0.6 percent, to 1,327.22.

The Nasdaq composite rose 1.22, or 0.1 percent, to 2,782.27

For the year to date:

The Dow is up 648.83, or 5.6 percent.

The S&P is up 69.58, or 5.5 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 126.40, or 4.9 percent.

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Egypt delays expected reopening of stock market (AP)

CAIRO – Egyptian officials have again delayed the restart of the country's stock exchange, a move that brokers said Tuesday would likely only undercut investor confidence in a market many expect to take a hammering as the country struggles to regain footing after massive protests that ousted its longtime president.

The Egyptian Exchange, shuttered for over a month, was to resume trading on Tuesday. But in an overnight statement, exchange officials said the market would reopen instead on March 6 to "allow investors to profit from the government's support to guarantee stability in the bourse."

The decision reflected the strong undercurrent of unease in the Arab world's most populous nation where the market's benchmark stock index had shed almost 17 percent in two consecutive trading sessions before it closed at the end of the business day on Jan. 27.

"No doubt, it is certainly eroding investor confidence, and we're losing credibility by the day in international markets," said Karim Helal, managing director of brokerage CI Capital. "If the decision is to allow the market to absorb losses, it won't make a difference. It will just make it worse."

The exchange's closure was repeatedly extended as protests in Egypt gained momentum demanding Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Even after he was pushed from power, the suspension continued as massive labor strikes gripped the country and banks closed for a week.

To allay concerns about a panic sell-off, market officials set up safeguards to ensure that the broader EGX100 index would not collapse in one session, including setting up so-called trading circuit-breakers that would halt trading in the case the index shifted by 5 percent and then 10 percent.

The government, already facing a sharp economic blow from the expected downturn in tourism and foreign investment linked to the anti-regime unrest, said it would provide backing for smaller investors and brokerages.

But many remained unconvinced that a crash would be averted. And, as the market geared up for a restart, protests began in front of the exchange.

Analysts and brokers say the decision to delay the restart, however, may also be linked to the investigations of several prominent businessmen with close ties to the Mubarak regime. Many of these businessmen head some of Egypt's largest private sector companies.

Several have had their assets frozen and brokers have been ordered to go through their books and ensure that they can verify the identity of all their clients as many of these businessmen's holdings include significant amounts of shares.

The aim, ostensibly, is to ensure that these individuals do not convert their shares into cash and transfer them out of the country using a pseudonym.

The continuation of the halt in the exchange's operations, however, will likely do little to avoid what many expect will at least be a first day sell-off.

Stock markets across the region have been seeing sharp drops over the past few days because of the violent protests in Libya. Meanwhile the spread of the demonstrations in the oil-rich Gulf Arab region is also stoking fears that it could spillover to OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia.

"There's a combination of reasons" for the continued closure, said Helal, including the "continuing presence of some investors who are demanding the suspension until things stabilize."

"I'm not sure what they mean by that," he said, adding that keeping the market closed will not avert a sell-off.

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How the major stock indexes fared Thursday (AP)

Stocks fell for a straight third day Thursday as concerns continued over how violent clashes in Libya would affect the global oil market. Major indexes pared steeper losses in the afternoon after oil prices fell for the first time in nine days.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 37.28, or 0.3 percent, to 12,068.50.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 1.3, or 0.1 percent, to 1,306.10.

The Nasdaq composite rose 14.91, or 0.6 percent, to 2,737.90.

For the week:

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 322.75 points, or 2.6 percent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 36.91, or 2.7 percent.

The Nasdaq composite is down 96.05, or 3.4 percent.

For the year to date:

The Dow is up 490.99, or 4.2 percent.

The S&P is up 48.46, or 3.9 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 85.03, or 3.2 percent.

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The Irrelevant Stock Market (The Motley Fool)

Reuters blogger Felix Salmon wrote a very interesting op-ed in The New York Times last week about our increasingly irrelevant stock market:

... the glory days of publicly traded companies dominating the American business landscape may be over. The number of companies listed on the major domestic exchanges peaked in 1997 at more than 7,000, and it has been falling ever since. It's now down to about 4,000 companies, and given its steep downward trend will surely continue to shrink.Nor are the remaining stocks an obvious proxy for the health of the American economy. Innovative American companies like Apple and Google may be worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but most of them don't pay dividends or employ many Americans, and their shares are essentially speculative investments for people making a bet on how we're going to live in the future.Put another way, as the number of initial public offerings steadily declines, the stock market is becoming little more than a place for speculators and algorithms to compete over who can trade his way to the most money. ...Meanwhile, the companies in which people most want to invest, technology stars like Facebook and Twitter, are managing to avoid the public markets entirely by raising hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars privately. You and I can't buy into these companies; only very select institutions and well-connected individuals can. And companies prefer it that way.

Sadly, he's all sorts of right. The only reason a company should go public is to gain access to capital markets. If they can privately obtain all the capital they need and bypass the public circus of high-frequency traders, quarterly earnings roasts, and regulatory flame-throwing, then by all means they should do so.

But to play devil's advocate, the decline of public markets might not be as bad as it looks.

The number of listed companies shouldn't be of upmost importance in judging markets' relevancy. The quality of those companies should get some weight, too. The number of listed companies may have peaked in 1997, but what kind of companies were these? Data from the World Federation of Exchanges shows the Nasdaq is responsible for essentially the entire decline since then -- fully 35% of Nasdaq listings vanished between 1998 and 2003. Maybe these were good companies looking to escape the rigors of public life. Or maybe they never should have been public to being with -- because they weren't real companies, just dot-com dreams someone managed to take public. More than 65% of Nasdaq companies were profitable last year. My humble data source doesn't go back far enough, but one can only imagine it was a fraction of that in 1997.

And Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - News) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - News) may not pay dividends or employ many people, as Salmon notes, but neither, presumably, do Facebook or Twitter, the privately held stars he mentions. Twitter, in fact, recently employed just 300 people -- the equivalent of 0.002% of the population of Billings, Mont. And 72% of S&P 500 companies do actually pay a dividend. For every dividend-free Apple or Google, one can point out an Intel (Nasdaq: INTC - News) or MSFT (Nasdaq: MSFT - News), which are innovating, employing, and paying good dividends to shareholders. Good companies worthy of your money are still public. Many of them. Probably more than there ever have before. Even with 4,000 listed companies, the average investor is still completely overwhelmed with opportunity. Most would be better off with fewer listed companies tempting them to invest in areas they have no hope of understanding.

In the end though, I don't think Salmon's larger point can be argued. Companies don't have the incentive to be public today that they did in years past. Other options are available, and the annoyances of public life are multiplying in force.

Will this trend continue? Is it something investors should worry about?

You tell me.

Fool contributor Motley Fool Inside Value recommendations. Google is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers pick. Apple is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor choice. The Fool has written puts on Apple. The Fool owns shares of and has bought calls on Intel. Motley Fool Options has recommended a diagonal call position on Intel. Motley Fool Options has recommended a diagonal call position on Microsoft. The Fool owns shares of Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Egypt delays stock market's reopening (AP)

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer Tarek El-tablawy, Ap Business Writer – Tue Feb 22, 9:08 am ET
CAIRO – Egypt's stock exchange postponed its already long-delayed reopening until next week and markets in the Gulf Arab region posted their third consecutive day of declines as unrest in Libya and elsewhere in the region battered already fragile investor confidence in the Mideast.
Standard & Poor's, meanwhile, became the second credit agency in as many days to cut Libya's ratings, citing the kind of violence that has been unseen in Moammar Gadhafi's nearly 42-year leadership of that OPEC member state.
The Egyptian Exchange's decision to postpone its relaunch would mean that the market will have been closed for a month, assuming it restarts on Feb. 27. The exchange, in an e-mailed statement, said the decision followed consultations with the Egyptian Financial Services Supervisory Authority and brokerage houses. It did not specify a date for the relaunch.
The decision appeared to reflect that continued anxiety in Egypt about the country's economic woes following 18 days of protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak were being compounded by broader unrest in the region.
Unrest also has hit Yemen and Bahrain, putting the demonstrations on the other side of a causeway from Saudi Arabia.
The Dubai Financial Market's main index closed down 2.44 percent, to 1,479 points, while Saudi Arabia's TASI index rebounded from losses of over 1 percent earlier in the day. But the TASI still closed down 0.35 percent, or 6,277 points.
"You've got a political risk that is being leveled on local and regional equity markets. It's increasing day by day as we see more violence," particularly in Libya, said Haissam Arabi, chief executive of Gulfmena Alternative Investments, a fund management firm in Dubai.
"This is a situation where sentiment takes precedence over science and fundamentals," Arabi said.
In Dubai, Emaar Properties, the developer behind Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, closed down 2 percent, hitting 2.92 Emirati dirhams. Courier Aramex, meanwhile, saw its shares slide 7.36 percent to 1.51 dirhams.
Abu Dhabi's benchmark index closed down 1.57 percent, to 2,579 points, with the construction and real estate sectors recording the biggest declines.
Qatar's exchange was off 3.57 percent, bringing its year-to-date losses to more than 5.3 percent. The country, which is poised for a construction boom as it prepares to host the World Cup in 2022 and has some of the world's biggest natural gas reserves, has been one of the few in the region able to post staggering GDP growth figures, even during the global financial meltdown.
While Arabi said the region's markets are driven largely by retail investors, big institutional buyers overseas are also spooked by the continuing unrest.
"Foreign investors feel as though they really can't tell the difference" between countries in the Middle East and North Africa, he said. "The level of awareness, especially when it comes to politics, is really only what people see on CNN."
As long as the unrest keeps up, Arabi believes there could be further pressure to sell off stocks in the region.
The declines built on losses that have accrued since Sunday and come as ratings agencies take an increasingly critical look at the financial fundamentals of many of the countries in the region.
A day after Fitch cut Libya's ratings, S&P followed suit. The agency cut Libya's long-term sovereign credit rating to BBB+ from A-, placed all of its Libya ratings on credit watch negative and warned that additional cuts could be in the offing.
S&P said the cuts "reflect our reappraisal of political risks in Libya," and that it expects the violence to continue.
"In our view, the longer the unrest continues, the higher the risk of political instability spreading across the country," S&P said.
So far, credit agencies have cut ratings for several Arab nations, including Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, citing the ongoing unrest and its potential impact on the countries' respective economies.
___
AP Business Writers Adam Schreck in Dubai and Pan Pylas in London contributed.
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How the major stock indexes fared Tuesday (AP)

Stocks fell sharply and oil prices spiked to their highest level in two years Tuesday as unrest in Libya worsened. Oil prices jumped 6 percent to $95 a barrel. The Standard & Poor's 500 had its worst day since Aug. 11.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 178.46 points, or 1.4 percent, to 12,212.79.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 27.57, or 2 percent, to 1,315.44.
The Nasdaq composite fell 77.53, or 2.7 percent, to 2,756.42.
For the year to date:
The Dow is up 635.28, or 5.5 percent.
The S&P is up 57.80, or 4.6 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 103.55, or 3.9 percent.
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How the major stock indexes fared Friday (AP)

Stocks finished higher on Friday, giving the Dow Jones industrial average its third straight week of gains. It has risen 11 out of the past 12 weeks. Caterpillar Inc. rose 2.4 percent to lead the Dow. The company said sales of its heavy construction and mining equipment surged 49 percent last month.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 73.11 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,391.25.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.58 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,343.01.

The Nasdaq composite rose 2.37, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,833.95.

For the week to date:

The Dow is up 117.99, or 1 percent.

The S&P is up 13.86, or 1 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 24.51 or 0.9 percent.

For the year to date:

The Dow is up 813.74, or 7 percent.

The S&P is up 85.37, or 6.8 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 181.08, or 6.8 percent.

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Oil surge prompts stock sell-off, dollar rally (Reuters)

By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent – 1 hr 20 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks fell nearly 1 percent on Tuesday as revolt in Libya drove oil prices sharply higher, prompting fears of disruption to global economic growth.

Widespread risk aversion boosted the dollar and Swiss franc and prompted strong flows into U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. stock index futures also tumbled, suggesting losses on Wall Street when it opens.

U.S. crude futures hit a 2-1/2 year high, rising close to 8 percent to more than $94 a barrel on the latest contract's last day of trading, as deadly clashes wracked exporter Libya's biggest cities.

Brent oil was up close to $2 a barrel at $107.60, somewhat shy of Monday's intra-day 2-1/2 year peak.

Libya is by no means the world's largest oil producer, ranking third in Africa after Nigeria and Angola, but investors are concerned about the spread of trouble and a serious disruption to supply.

"Investors are scaling down on exposure across the board," said Richard Falkenhall, currency strategist at SEB in Stockholm. "Libya is the first major oil exporting country to be affected ... if this spreads to other oil exporting countries, it will not be a good sign."

Adding to the uncertain mood, two Iranian ships entered the Suez Canal on Tuesday on their way to the Mediterranean, a move that is bound to anger Israel.

Investors are primarily concerned that Middle East/North Africa trouble will keep oil prices high, driving up inflation, cutting into corporate profits and crimping economic growth.

This could be seen most clearly on Tuesday in MSCI's benchmark emerging market stock index (.MSCIEF), which was down 1.7 percent. Leading emerging market economies are among the fastest growing in the world and the most susceptible to inflationary pressure.

Globally, world stocks as measured by MSCI (.MIWD00000PUS) were down 0.9 percent. Europe's FTSEurofirst 300 (.FTEU3) was down about 1 percent. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) earlier lost 1.8 percent.

FLIGHT TO SAFETY

The risk-averse mood triggered a broad flight to safety. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell nearly 8 basis points to 3.505 percent. Yields on core euro zone debt lost 5 basis points to 3.131 percent.

"The situation in the Middle East is overshadowing everything else, and we've broken a series of technical levels on the way up," a trader said.

On foreign exchange markets, the dollar rallied broadly, up 0.6 percent against a basket of major currencies (.DXY) while the euro lost close to 1 percent to $1.3551.

The euro also fell 1 percent on the day to 1.2793 Swiss francs, pushing the traditional safe-haven currency to its strongest in three weeks.

Separately, the New Zealand dollar hit a near two-month low against its U.S. counterpart after investors fretted about the economic damage caused by a strong earthquake which rocked the country's second biggest city, spurring speculation about the chance of an interest rate cut.

(Additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and William James, editing by Mike Peacock)

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