The Week In Review
4/18-4/22/11
April 22, 2011Closed for Good Friday.
April 21, 2011
U.S. stocks opened higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average at a multiyear high, as better-than-expected earnings once again support sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 24 points to 12,477. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 6 points to 1,336. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 14 points to 2,816. Yesterday it was Intel leading the charge. Today it is Apple, up 2.5%. Qualcomm is up 3% following earnings while F5 Networks is up 8% on earnings. Cypress Semi and Nokia are higher following earnings. IBM also looks good, but the other big cap techs are struggling. Lam Research and Xerox are lower following earnings. The commodities are performing well. Newmont Mining, Schlumberger, Patriot Coal, and Diamond Offshore are higher following earnings. Nucor and Noble Corp are lower following earnings. Plenty of earnings in the financial space, however, the results are mixed. Morgan Stanley, Travelers, Blackrock, PNC Financial, Janus, and American Express are higher following earnings. Sallie Mae is jumping 16% after beating estimates, starting a dividend once again, and initiating a share buyback. Suntrust, Fifth Third, BB&T, T Rowe Price, and GE are lower following earnings. The big banks continue to struggle. Wells Fargo was downgraded. In the healthcare space UnitedHealth Group is jumping 8% following earnings. WellPoint is up 4% on sympathy. Biogen is jumping 18% on positive test results for their MS drug. That's good. After the first hour the averages gave up most of their gains. Not a good sign. Through the morning the averages recovered led by commodities. In the afternoon the averages remain in the green, but not by much. The Dow is being led by a 2% rally in IBM. Pfizer is down 3% after disappointing trials for their Alzheimer drugs. The Nasdaq is being led by a 2.5% rally in Apple following earnings. In the last hour the averages improved on their gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 52 points at 12,505 led by a 3.7% gain in Travelers and IBM. The S&P 500 gained 7 points to 1,337 led by chemicals companies and tech stocks. The Nasdaq Composite rose 17 points to 2,820. For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 rose 1.3% and the Nasdaq gained 2%.
April 20, 2011
U.S. stocks opened sharply higher on Wednesday after a plethora of blue chip stocks including Intel are projecting better sales and earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 160 points to 12,426. United Tech is up 4% thanks to strong earnings and a hike in their outlook. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 15 points to 1,328. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 48 points to 2,792. Intel is leading the techs and chips higher. Micron is jumping 7% in sympathy. Qualcomm is up 3% on an upgrade. Cloud computing highflier, VMware is jumping 9% thanks to strong earnings. Yahoo, Riverbed Tech, and EMC are also higher thanks to earnings. Apple is trading up ahead of earnings tonight. Adobe was downgraded, but the stock is higher. IBM beat estimates and raised guidance, yet the stock is lower. Juniper Networks is lower on in-line earnings. Cree is down 2% following earnings. The commodities are also performing well. Freeport McMoran is up 5% after easily beating estimates and providing a supplemental dividend to the annual dividend. The oils look good. Noble Corp and Noble Energy are higher on upgrades. The financials remain frustrating. Wells Fargo beat by a penny, but the stock is down 3%. Piper Jaffray is also lower by 4% after missing estimates. JP Morgan and US Bancorp are lower as well. Huntington Bancorp is higher following earnings. HSBC and Goldman Sachs are higher on upgrades. A small Massachusetts bank is buying a Rhode Island bank for a 50% premium. Not bad. After the first hour the averages improved. The Dow jumped as much as 200 points making a new high for the year. The Nasdaq is up 2% or 52 points at 2800. Through the morning the averages remained strong. The bull is back. In the afternoon the averages moved sideways until the last hour when the averages moved back toward the highs of the day. The chips keep improving like Intel and Micron. IBM has bounced off its' lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 186 points, or 1.5%, at 12,453, boosted by a 7.8% rally in Intel and 4.3% rise in United Technologies. It was the Dow's best one-day gain since March 3. The Nasdaq Composite ended up 57 points, or 2.1%, at 2,802, its biggest percentage rise since October 5th. The S&P 500 gained 17 points, or 1.4%, to 1,330 led by more than a 2% gains in its tech and energy sectors.
April 19, 2011
U.S. stocks began higher on Tuesday as first-quarter earnings from Johnson & Johnson and Goldman Sachs Group helped lifted investor sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 33 points to 12,235. J&J is trading up 2%. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 3 points to 1,308. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 8 points to 2,744. The earnings are starting to flood in. Within the financials Goldman looks good up 1.5%. State Street and Eaton are trading higher following earnings. Zions Bancorp is up 4% following earnings. US Bancorp and Regions are lower following earnings. In the tech sector Texas Instruments is modestly lower following earnings last night. The company did take a charge for a disruption in Japanese manufacturing. Intel is one of the few chips higher ahead of earnings tonight. IBM also reports tonight, but the stock is modestly lower. Seagate is down 3% following earnings and a deal to buy Samsung's disk drive business. Dell is modestly lower after an analyst lowered numbers this morning. The weakness in the tech dragged the Nasdaq into the red within the first hour. The financials also moved lower including Goldman. That's not a good sign. The strongest sector is the commodity space. Halliburton is up 3% following an upgrade. The higher gas prices don't seem to be helping Harley Davidson. The stock is down 4% after missing estimates. Through the morning the rally fizzled. The Nasdaq declined 8 points while the Dow reached the unchanged level before bouncing. The commodities remain the strongest sector. In the afternoon the averages improved with the Dow rising 40 points led by the commodities and drug stocks. Apple nudged back into the green led by Apple. Apple reports earnings tomorrow night. In the last hour the averages continued to improve led by commodities and a select number of techs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 65 points at 12,266. The S&P 500 rose 7 points to 1,312, led by a 1.8% rise in material stocks. The Nasdaq Composite rose 9 points to 2,744.
April 18, 2011
U.S. stock-indexes opened sharply lower on Monday after Standard & Poor's revised its long-term outlook on the U.S. to negative from stable indicating that the U.S. has a very large budget deficit and rising government indebtedness with no clear path to addressing the problem. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 182 points to 12,159. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 19 points to 1,300 while the Nasdaq Composite fell 40 points to 2,724. The markets were set to open lower before the comments out of the Standard and Poors. The commodities are particularly weak following the SP report, a rise in rates in China, and news that Saudi Arabia is cutting oil production due to a glut. All the oils are lower along with every other commodity other than gold down as well. McMoran is down 3% following in line numbers. Transocean is down 2% after an analyst cut their numbers. Halliburton is one bright spot up 2% after beating estimates. One rare earth metal, Molycorp is up a percent to a new high after making a small acquisition worth only $18 million yet their market cap jumped by $62 million. Not a bad deal. The financials are getting hit once again even though Citigroup is modestly higher following better than expected earnings this morning. M&T Bank and Bank of Hawaii are higher following earnings while TD Ameritrade is lower following earnings. KeyCorp is down 4% following earnings. In the tech sector Google and Apple keep pushing lower. IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, and Maxim all received upgrades, yet all four are lower. After the first hour the Dow pushed lower dropping over 200 points while the Nasdaq declined 55 points. Through the morning the averages slowly recovered, but remained very weak. In the afternoon the averages kept slowly recovering. Apple recovered moving into the green. Research in Motion rallied a little bit more. Within the Dow, J&J was in the green, but then sold off. Boeing is now the only Dow component in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 140 points, or 1.1%, at 12,201, its worst one-day drop since March 16, in the aftermath of Japan's quake and tsunami. The S&P 500 fell 14 points, or 1.1%, to 1,305, with energy leading declines across all 10 industry sectors. The Nasdaq Composite fell 29 points, or 1.1%, to 2,735.