Daily Wrap
DJIA +60.44 (+0.40%) to 15,275.69; S&P 500 +8.44 (+0.51%) to 1,658.78; NASDAQ +6.57 (+0.22%) to 3,002.62
A very choppy yet still strong day to follow-up on Tuesday’s rip higher. Today initially open lowered but by 11am EST was back to flat and then took off at what felt like an unabated rally which fell just shy of $1660 in the S&P 500 cash index. The market then swooned almost back to even and finally finished up 8 points and only roughly 3 from the high. There was a decent amount of economic data today and it was interestingly mixed but what will be watched for the rest of the week is the Unemployment Claims number which will be out at 8:30 am EST tomorrow. I have the consensus estimate at 332K and as we recall last week’s number was a better than expected 323K.
Google (GOOG) has been on an absolute tear of late and today was no exception as they I/O developers conference was in full swing. The conference was not short of news as GOOG announced a music service called “All Access” which costs $9.99 per month and be available on web browsers and mobile devices. GOOG also announced updates for the beloved Google Maps and Google+. GOOG closed up 3.25% for the day.
A big name not receiving Wall Street’s love was Deere (DE) which lost over 4% on their earnings report but the current quarter’s numbers were not the issue and it was guidance that global financial pressure and weather caused them to lower full year estimates. I am not sure it will get there but around $80, DE might interest me to take a small starter position.
Macy’s (M) gained 2.49% after reporting earnings that beat EPS and met revenues but the big news was M raised its dividend 25% from 20c to 25c and authorized an increase in the buyback $1.5B. M also received a price target raise to $54 from $46 at Credit Suisse while they maintained an Outperform rating.
The following noteworthy companies are scheduled to report earnings before tomorrow’s open: WMT, KSS, FLO, BRC, PBH
In analyst notes today, Gap (GPS) was upgraded to Buy at Citigroup with $48 price target. Noble Energy (NBL) was upgraded to Buy at Stifel with $140 price target and Prudential (PRU) was upgraded to Buy at Stifel with $75 price target. On the downside, Golar LNG (GLNG) was downgraded to Sell at Goldman. There was actually many notable names being downgraded but so many were either on valuation or to Neutral from Buy or Outperform and not necessarily a convicted call for downside. 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.