Diamonds and Dogs

10/6/15

DuPont (DD) is up 8% today leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher which is up 5% from Friday's lows. DuPont is shooting higher after the CEO, under pressure from activist investors, is stepping down. The activist investor is none other than Nelson Peltz of Trian Fund Management, the same investor boosting GE's stock the other day. With the DuPont CEO stepping down, expect more cost cutting at DuPont. Good news for shareholders, but maybe not for employees.

Illumina (ILMN) not so bright today. Illumina is a very unqiue company for genetic analysis creating sequencing platforms that are based on its SBS technology, which provides researchers with various ranges of applications and the ability to sequence mammalian genomes; and array platforms consist of HiScan and iScan systems, as well as NextSeq 550 system that are array scanners for DNA and RNA analysis applications. The company and the stock have been on a roll rising 9 fold over the last 3 years, but last night the company lowered guidance for the next two quarters. The stock is down 40% in the last three months so is the bad news priced in? We'll see