CALM IN THE MARKETS OF THE WORLD

Stocks mostly up amid strong corporate earnings

Fiserv's $4.4 billion acquisition of CheckFree helps offsets credit concerns

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks pulled higher Thursday, bolstered by bright profit reports from the likes of Nokia Corp., Starbucks Corp., and Dow component Walt Disney Co., while a $4.4 billion deal helped offset worries about the credit climate.
"Some sanity is beginning to return to the marketplace," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners. "M&A is still coming in; the market's fears of a credit crunch are probably overblown, due to the fact that there is a lot of global liquidity."

Voluminous Volume

Trading volumes remained unusually high, contributing to the market's volatility.
At the New York Stock Exchange, trading volume hit 1.2 million shares, with advancing issues topping decliners 5 to 3.

At the Nasdaq, nearly 1.6 billion shares exchanged hands, and advancing and stocks outpacing decliners 15 to 13.

"We're not seeing broad participation on up days and big volumes on down days," said Paul Nolte, director of investments at Hinsdale Associates. "The momentum peak was February, since then, we've been in a corrective mode."

"What we're seeing in the market is similar to the trends we've seen over the last several sessions - heightened volatility," said Mike Malone, trading analyst at Cowen & Co. "Investors are looking to sell on strength, but on the other hand there is some valuation support to the downside."

The market is likely to trade in a volatile, but range-bound fashion for the foreseeable future, both Malone and Cardillo said.

"The market is preparing itself for tomorrow's jobs report," said Cardillo of Friday's release of unemployment rate, which was expected to hold at 4.5%.
On Wednesday stocks locked in hefty gains at the conclusion of a hectic session that saw numerous reversals of course for the major averages. Market sentiment fluctuated between optimism about strong corporate and economic fundamentals and anxiety about shaky credit market conditions and rising energy prices.