Archive for the ‘Major Moves’ Category

General Electric and Bank of America pull down the market

bearThe market closed in the red today, as poor earnings from General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) brought out the bears.

The DOW closed the session down 0.67%, the NASDAQ ended the day down 0.76%, while the S&P slipped by 0.8%.

General Electric started off the day off on a bad note when the company reported revenues that came up short of analyst estimates. GE was able to outpace analyst estimates for its earnings in the third quarter by posting 23 cents per share verse analyst estimates of 20 cents per share, but that was not enough to outweigh its missed revenues. The company reported $37.8 billion in revenues verse analyst estimates for $40.3 billion. Shares of GE closed the day down 4.2% to $16.08, down $0.71 on the day and wiping out $7.5 billion in market capitalization.

Bank of America was expected to show a loss for its third quarter of 21 cents per share, but the actual numbers came in worse than expected with a 26 cent loss in the quarter. The stock was hit hard today following the report, with shares falling 4.6% to $17.26, down $0.84 on the day.

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New 52 Week Highs:

There were several big name stocks that were able to set new 52 week highs today, despite the down market and include the following; Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), and Mattel (NYSE: MAT).

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Analyst upgrades and downgrades:

Stocks upgraded today include:

  • Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) upgraded by Caris to Buy from Above Average with $27 price target
  • Safeway (NYSE: SWY) upgraded by Kevin Dann to Buy from Neutral and boosted its price target on the stock to $27 from $19 per share.
  • Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) received an upgrade today by Benchmark Co. to a Buy from Hold, while lifting its price target on the stock to $625 from $500.

Stocks downgraded today include:

  • Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) downgraded by Caris to Above Average from Buy with a $56 price target on the stock.
  • Nokia (NYSE: NOK) downgraded by Gabelli to Hold from Buy.

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DOW closes over 10,000, some big names hit new highs: INTC, JPM, EMC

bull.jpgThe DOW closed above the psychological 10,000 mark today for the first time in a year, and ended the day up 1.47% to 10,115.86.

The first time that the DOW rose above the 10,000 mark was all the way back in 1999, and at that time investors celebrated, and drank champagne, but this time it was not so much a reason to celebrate as a reason to relax a bit, as Wall Street continues to claw its way back from the lows set in March of this year.

It has been an impressive run for the DOW, which is now up 53% from the lows it set earlier this year. The market had a good day on the back of strong earnings from Intel Corp. (NYSE: INTC) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM).

A few stocks that hit new 52 week highs today include:

  • Intel Corp (NYSE: INTC): The company hit a high of $21.27 and closed the day up 1.6% at $20.83. The company reported 33 cents per share, which was higher than the 28 cents that analysts had been expecting to see.
  • JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM): JP Morgan hit a high of $47.47 on the day, and closed the session up 3.3% to $47.16, up $1.50. The company reported earnings of 82 cents per share for its third quarter, above analyst estimates for 52 cents a share.
  • EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC): EMC set a new 52 week high today after the stock was upgraded this morning by Thomas Weisel to Overweight from Market Weight, and the broker raised its price target on the stock to $24 from $15. The stock hit a new high of $18.33 and closed today’s trading up 1.3% to $18.16, up $0.24.

Other big names hitting new highs today were Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Wyeth (NYSE: WYE), Merck (NYSE: MRK), and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).

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Another down day for the market

After yesterday’s rally, and President Obama’s speech last night, it would have been nice to see another strong day for the market, but that was not the case as sellers came back in and sent all the major markets lower in today’s trading.

As we know, the housing market has been a major drain on the overall economy, and the real estate market got some more bad news today as we learned that January existing home sales dropped by more than expected.

Several big names hit new fresh 52 week lows today:

  • Pfizer (PFE)
  • Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
  • Nokia (NOK)
  • Caterpillar (CAT)
  • Boeing (BA)

We will see if the markets are able to pick up some steam tomorrow, but for now it looks like pessimism is still running wild on Wall Street

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Premarket look: Market poised for another sell off

Another tough day ahead of us on Wall Street, as international markets have sold off about 4% today on widening fears over the slowing global economy.

Look for another sell off on Wall Street, as futures are indicating a very sharp drop at the open. After the volatile week last week, many of us had some hopes that the Bush approved $700 billion bailout plan that was passed late on Friday would help spark a slight bounce, but that is not to be the case, and stocks are set for a much lower open to get the week started.

There is going to be a lot of pain out there today.

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Market should open higher after yesterday’s sell off

Yesterday was brutal on the stock market, with the largest one day drop in history, as the DOW fell 777 points, a decline of nearly 7. The Nasdaq dropped by even more on a percentage basis, with a decline of 9.14%, and the S&P gave back 8.8% yesterday.

Futures are trading higher today, but it is going to take a lot more than one day of upside to make up what we lost yesterday.

Yesterday started off slowly as investors were skeptical that the proposed Bush bailout plan was going to be enough to save the troubled economy, but that fear turned to panic once the market realized that the plan was not going to go through all at yesterday afternoon.

Lawmakers are going to be on holiday until Thursday to observe the Jewish holidays, but there should still be some action taking place behind closed doors aimed at ironing out a new deal that will satisfy both Congress and Wall Street. We will see if / when that is able to take place.

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