01.07.201400:19:21UTC+00US stocks rise for the sixth consecutive quarter

US stocks inched up on Monday’s trade with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite reaching a sixth consecutive quarter gain, a trend last seen in 1998 as investors determine the fate of the US economy with its array of economic data.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7% for the month of June and a total of 2.4% for the quarter. For today’s exchange it was in between gains and losses until it finally settled down at 16,826.60, 0.2% down or 25.24 pips. The S&P 500 is up 1.9% for the month of June and 4.7% for the quarter, a sixth consecutive quarterly gain for the index. For the session it is down  0.04% or 0.73 pips to 1,960.23. The Nasdaq Composite is also in its sixth consecutive quarterly high and add to that a 14-year high as it hit 4,408.18 with a 0.2% gain or 10.25 pips. For the month of June it rose a total of 3.9% and for the quarter, 5%.

The trend showed that for every three stocks that climbed, two dropped. 729 million shares exchanged hands in the market while composite volumes went over 3 billion.

General Motors shares dropped 0.9% to $36.30 following announcement that it will be recalling some 7.6 million older models due to a potentially faulty ignition switches. American Apparel is also down after turning down an investor meeting requested by ex-chief executive Dov Charney. Yahoo upgraded the internet search engine to overweight driving the shares up.

Chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds, David Kelly speculates that there is two things that are out of whack in the market. One of them is the weak first quarter readings of 2.9% that Kelly says is a very misleading indicator for the economy. Kelly adds that the other thing that is out of whack is the relatively low-level of long-term interest rates that puzzles Kelly as to the people who willingly buys Treasury would want to buy them because there is no current expectations of an economic slowdown.