Daily Wrap

DJIA +130.63 (+0.89%) to 14,831.58; S&P 500 +14.89 (+0.94%) to 1,597.59; NASDAQ +37.79 (+1.32%) to 2,911.14

Today was another one of those small gap and run days where the market drifted higher the entire day.  There is not much else to say except it seems as though the market was happy to rally on today’s better than expected Unemployment Claims but the focus will quickly flip to the Non-Farm Employment Change numbers.  I have estimates at 155K and remember last report came in at 88K.

In economic news today, Unemployment Claims came in at their lowest levels in over 5 years and well below analysts expectations.  The U.S. trade deficit fell 11% and in particular there was a decrease of imports from China.  Abroad, the European Central Bank decided to lower refinancing rates 25 points to 0.50%.

A news event that didn’t really move the stock but worth noting is Intel (INTC) announced that the current COO, Brian Krzanich, will become the CEO of the company.

ING (ING) sold 25% of its stake in subsidiary ING U.S. (VOYA) through an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.  ING also affirmed plans to sell the remaining stake by 2016.

After reporting good global sales numbers yesterday, General Motors (GM) gained X% after reporting earnings which beat EPS handily and slightly topped revenues.  Other major names moving on their earnings report included Yelp (YELP), Monster Worldwide (MWW)and Visa (V) which gained X%, X% and X% respectively.  NII Holdings (NIHD) initially gaped higher in the morning after reporting earnings but the highs were set in the first 5 minutes of trading and the stock turned violently to finally close down X%.

The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: DUK, ADP, REGN, SE, HST, MCO, NWL, PNW, BPL, LNT, POM

In analyst notes today, Arch Coal (ACI) was upgraded to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley and then Allergan (AGN), Seagate (STX), Tractor Supply (TSCO) and Viacom (VIAB) all received upgrades to Buy (see the section for the firms and price targets).  On the downside, SolarCity (SCTY) caught a downgrade to Neutral at Goldman Sachs with a $23 price target.  Some of these and other upgrades and downgrades for the day can be found each morning when I post my 9 @ 9 in the Upgrades/Downgrades section.