The Week In Review
2/7-2/11/11
February 11, 2011U.S. stock indexes opened lower on Friday as Wall Street continues to track reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak won't step down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 44 points to 12,184. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 5 points to 1,316. The Nasdaq Composite declined 6 points to 2,784. Plenty of earnings keep flooding in. Last night restaurant companies like California Pizza, Panera Bread, Chipotle Mexican Grill look great after better than expected earnings. Panera is jumping 15%. Cheesecake Factory is down 2% even though they beat estimates. Wynn Resorts is higher by 4% after beating estimates. Kraft is down 2% on in line numbers. In the tech space Raxspace is up 7% on in line earnings. Apple and Google look good. Research in Motion continues to move higher. IBM is up half a percent. Micron is higher even though it was downgraded. Nokia is shaking things up, partnering with Microsoft with a new business plan, however, investors don't seem to like the deal. Nokia is down 14% while Microsoft is modestly higher. The financials opened lower with only JP Morgan trading higher. Ameriprise is higher on an upgrade. After the first hour the averages slowly improved. The averages accelerated following the first hour with news out of Egypt that their President is finally stepping down. The Dow shot up 30 points while the Nasdaq improved by 7 points. The financials look great. The bond insurers look great. Everything is right in the world. In the afternoon the averages remained in the green. In the auto sector, India based auto company Tata Motors is up 10% following earnings. Ford is up 3% after announcing they will reduce their debt once again by $3 billion getting favorable reviews from the bond rating agencies. In the last hour the averages pulled back only to rally into the close. The Dow Industrials finished up 43 points at 12,273 for the day, and 1.5% for the week. The S&P 500 index added 7 points to end the day at 1329, up 1.4% for the week. The Nasdaq Composite rose 18 points to end at 2809, up 1.45% for the week. Another great week.
February 10, 2011
U.S. stocks opened lower on Thursday after earnings disappointments from corporations including technology giant and Dow component Cisco Systems. The Dow Jones Industrial fell 39 points to 12,200. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 4 points to 1,316 while the Nasdaq Composite declined 21 points to 2,767. In the tech space Akamai is down 15% following earnings. Cisco is down 13% approaching the lows from December. Cisco news doesn't seem to be hurting many other techs. Rival, Juniper is trading higher. Apple opened lower, but then traded higher. Can't keep that stock down. In the insurance space, Allstate and Metlife are modestly lower following earnings. Prudential is jumping 2% after beating estimates. The rest of the financials are unchanged or modestly lower. Huntington Bancshares was upgraded, but the stock isn't moving. The commodities opened lower, but are battling back. Apache and Agrium are higher on upgrades. Louisiana Pacific is jumping 4% on earnings. Noble Energy is unchanged following earnings. Other companies reporting earnings include Goodyear, Molson Coors, Pepsi, Sprint, Bunge, and Phillip Morris. Goodyear is jumping 7%, Sprint is up 2%, and Pepsi is lower by 2%. Within the first hour the Dow fell 70 points only to rally back on rumors the Egyptian President was set to step down. The averages remain in the red, but a number of techs, financials, and commodities are in the green. Through the morning the averages continued to recover with the Nasdaq moving into the green and the Dow inching closer to the unchanged level. In the afternoon the averages pulled back once again. Take Cisco out of the Dow and Nasdaq and both averages would easily be in the green. Apple had a sharp selloff in the middle of the afternoon along with Verizon due to concerns that Verizon iphone sales have not lived up to the hype. AT&T and Research in Motion are higher due to this news. In the last hour the averages rebounded even though the President of Egypt would not give up all his power, but only the day to day operations, whatever that means. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended its eight-session winning streak declining 10 points to 12,229, dragged lower by a 14% drop in Cisco Systems. The S&P 500 ended up a point at 1,321. The Nasdaq Composite inched up a point to 2,790.
February 9, 2011
U.S. stocks on Wednesday retreated a bit from a striking run that has the averages up more than 5% this year, with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony coming up. "The market has lacked a domestic catalyst to trigger selling. That makes it difficult to call this 'climbing a wall of worry.' If nothing else, the market has climbed a wall of optimism," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3 points to 12,229. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped 2 points to 1,322. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 3 points to 2,793. The markets opened lower, but it didn't take long for the averages to rebound into the green. Within the Dow, Disney is jumping 6% following strong earnings. One analyst upgraded the stock with a $50 price target. Coke is higher on in line earnings. 3M is also performing well. In the tech sector Apple is making a new high. Shocker. Atmel is jumping 9% following strong earnings, but the rest of the chips are not participating. Take Two Interactive is up 3% on earnings. Computer Science and Netgear are both down over 7% following earnings. Not a great day for tech. The commodity space is lower except for the fertilizers. Agrium is jumping 4% to new highs on earnings. CF Industries is up 3% on an upgrade. The financials are mostly lower. Wells Fargo is down 3% after the sudden departure of their CFO. XL Capital and AIG are lower following earnings. In the retail space Ralph Lauren and Buffalo Wild Wing are both jumping 10% on earnings. AutoNation is up 4% on an upgrade. JCPenney is up 2% thanks to positive comments from shareholder and activist Bill Ackerman. Wyndham Worldwide is down 2% even though they beat estimates. After the first hour the averages gave up their gains on lackluster trading. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages hovered around the unchanged level. There are more stocks declining than advancing, but the averages don't reflect that news. Apple is single handedly keeping the Nasdaq up. Disney, HP, 3M, and Travelers are lifting the Dow. In the last hour, in the last few minutes, the Dow snuck into the green to keep the rally streak alive. The Dow closed up 6 points at 12239 for an eight straight session of gains. The S&P 500 dropped 3 points to 1320 while the Nasdaq edged lower down 7 points to 2789.
February 8, 2011
U.S. stocks on Tuesday struggled to shake off mild opening losses, with Wall Street mulling whether to extend a climb that had the major indexes on Monday finishing at multiyear highs. Investors were considering the potential impact of another rate hike by China, corporate earnings and M&A activity. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 3 points to 12,165. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped a point to 1,317 while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2 points to 2,781. A couple of sectors opened modestly lower including the financials and the commodity space. UBS and Arcelor Mittal are higher following earnings. Hartford is modestly higher on an upgrade. Genworth is down 2% on a downgrade. The techs continue to shine. Apple and IBM are at new highs on upgrades. Google is also higher. Sandisk is up 3% on an upgrade. Netgear is lower even though it was upgraded. The chips are one of the few sectors within the techs that are trading lower. There is one merger this morning in the healthcare space. Rehabcare is jumping 45% after agreeing to be acquired by Kindred Healthcare for $1.3 billion. Kindred is also trading sharply higher. Coventry Health and Teva Pharma are down over 3% following earnings. After the first hour the averages moved into the green. That didn't take long. McDonalds is jumping 3% within the Dow thanks to strong global sales. Through the morning the Dow improved rising 40 points to a new high of 12200 thanks in part to a revival in the financials. The techs have pulled back with the Nasdaq up only 2 points. In the afternoon the averages moved sideways near the highs of the day, surging in the last hour. A select number of techs look good like Apple, Google, and IBM. The rest of the sector is quiet. The financials have improved markedly. The commodities are in the red. The averages once again rallied into the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 71 points at 12,233, its seventh straight day of gains, for its longest winning streak since mid-July. It was the highest close since mid-June 2008. McDonald's led the blue-chip average with a 2.6% rise. The S&P 500 gained 5 points to 1,324. The Nasdaq Composite ended up 13 points at 2,797.
February 7, 2011
U.S. stocks on open near 29-month highs with sentiment lifted by corporate earnings, a round of deal-making and a decline in tension in Egypt. Extending a winning streak into a sixth consecutive session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 21 points to 12,113. The Standard & Poor's 500 inched up 3 points to 1,314 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 4 points to 2,773. We're going up every day. I wish it was this easy all the time. Another merger Monday, but the deals are getting bigger and bigger. Ensco is buying Pride International for $7 billion. Pride is jumping 18%. Danaher is buying Beckham Coulter for $6.8 billion. Both stocks are up over 4%. Chesapeake Energy is jumping 5% after announcing they will put some of their units on the block looking to raise $5 billion. St Joes is jumping 10% after their largest shareholder declared he is looking to replace the Chairman at the firm. Wesco Financial is higher after Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy the rest of the company they didn't already own. Loews, CNA Financial, and Lorillard are all up over 2% following earnings. Genpact is up 3% on earnings. Sysco Foods is one of the few stocks in the universe trading lower following earnings. The other Cisco is higher thanks to two upgrades. HP is higher on an upgrade. Apple and Google look good. Apple made a new all time high. Corning and Research in Motion are two techs trading lower. The financials are up this morning. The insurance stocks look good. Aetna is higher on an upgrade. Hartford, Prudential, and Metlife are all higher. In the auto sector Ford is boosting production helping lift that stock. After the first half an hour the Dow jumped 55 points while the Nasdaq rose 15 points. Through the morning the averages kept climbing. The Dow rose 90 points. The Nasdaq rose 22 points. Up, up, and away. Through the morning and into the afternoon the averages moved sideways near the highs of the day. In the last hour a minor pull back brought more buying into the close. The Dow Jones Industrials Average ended up 69 points at 12,161 its sixth straight gain. Bank of America shares led with a 2.7% rise. The S&P 500 gained 8 points to 1,319 led by financials and industrials sectors. The Nasdaq Composite gained 14 points to 2,783.