Daily Report for Thurs., Mar. 5, 2009 (7:57am ET) Equity markets made steady progress on Wednesday as Energy (XLE +4.8%) and Basic Material (XLB) stocks rallied from the opening bell, giving traders hope that an upside move was about to commence. By the end of the session, the DJIA (+149.82 +2.23% to 6875.84, still down from Friday’s 7062.93 close); the S&P 500 (+16.54 +2.38% to 712.87, still down from Friday’s 735.09); and the NASDAQ Composite (+32.73 +2.48% to 1353.74, still down from 1377.84) showed promise. The Canadian markets were also firm as the Toronto Composite gained +183.13 +2.40% to 7814.75 (down from Friday’s 8123.02 close), while the Venture Board gained just +6.88 +0.83% to 830.95 (down from Friday’s 861.66). Earlier in the day today, Asia-Pacific equity markets were mixed: Australia (+0.73% to 3148.8); Japan (+1.95% to 7433.5); and Shanghai China (+1.04% to 2221.1) were strong, whereas Hong [More...]