Daily Wrap

DJIA +207.50 (+1.38%) to 15,248.12;S&P 500 +207.50 (+1.38%) to 1,643.38;NASDAQ +40.57 (+1.38%) to 2,990.87

Today the markets followed up on yesterday’s moves off the lows with a very impressive strong rally after a jobs number that many touted as “in the sweet spot”.  Meaning that it was not strong enough to force the Fed to revisit their efforts but better than estimates showing an improvement in the employment picture.  While the Jobs number slightly beat estimates, the Unemployment rate ticked up unexpectedly to 7.6% due to more people entering the workforce than expected.  These are presumably people who were previously discouraged workers so if they feel better about the job environment this can be takes as a positive.  The actual employment numbers today were 175K when 167K was expected and a 7.6% rate when 7.5% was expected.

Tivo (TIVO) announced today what news reports had said yesterday, namely that they settled a patent lawsuit with Google’s (GOOG) Motorola unit, Cisco (CSCO) and Time Warner Cable (TWC).  The company also announced the board doubled the stock buyback to $200M from $100M.

Also announcing a buyback was Dow stock Wal-Mart (WMT).  WMT’s board approved a $15B share repurchase program which will replace the current program.  WMT gained just under 1% on the news but actually lagged the Dow’s overall performance.

Moving higher on their earnings report today was Thor Industries (THO) after reporting Q3 EPS of 97c vs expectations of 88c on in-line revenue of $1.05B.

There were a few notable names moving much lower today on news the IRS was launching a study of REIT conversions.  The biggest loser I saw was Iron Mountain (IRM) which lost over 15% on the news.  This will be something to watch because if the names tied to this situation continue to sell off and the IRS ultimately doesn’t change the rules or prohibit their conversions to REITs then there could be a great deal of upside.

In analyst notes today, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) was upgraded to Buy at BofA/Merrill.  Yum! Brands (YUM) was upgraded to Buy at UBS and Kroger (KR) upgraded to Buy at Cleveland Research.  On the downside today something caught my eye and that was Raymond James downgrading multiple Coal names.  The Coal stocks have had a tough time of late and this is just a pile on but I would be watching these for bottom someday.  Bottoming in these names will be a process and there should be many entry points along the way.  Raymond James seemed to be least bearish on my favorite, while it was also still downgraded, and that is Peabody Energy (BTU).  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.