Tag Archives: market
Stock Market Story: Feb. 3
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Stocks popped at Friday’s open as investors welcomed an upside surprise in how many jobs the economy added last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 108 points, or 0.9%, at 12,813. The S&P 500 was up 13 points, or 1%, at 1,338. The Nasdaq was up 28 points, or 1%, at 2,888.
The Bureau of Labor statistics announced Friday morning that the U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January to push the unemployment rate down to 8.3%, the lowest level since February 2009. Economists had expected the addition of 150,000 new jobs last month, and for the unemployment rate to remain unchanged at 8.5%.
…
My $100,000 Portfolio Strategy for this Changing Market
Roughly a month ago, I was quite excited to launch a new $ 100,000 Real-Money Portfolio here at StreetAuthority. The market offered plenty of bargains and was looking quite healthy from a technical perspective. Sure enough, the S&P 500 is up nearly 5% in January and up roughly 15% from the start of the fourth quarter of 2011.
But this creates a real conundrum.
Is it best to infer that the recent strong market performance is simply a precursor to even more gains for the rest of 2012? Or is it wiser to take a foot off the gas and hold off on further purchases until the market catches its breath?
Market Continues to Surge – Scan for the 26th of January
Another day of wildness and just way too many alerts – this market has been nuts and it’s almost stressful the amount of plays there are since I never want to miss any try to nail them…
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Market Wrap-Up for Jan.25 (MSFT, AAPL, GWW, WLP, TXT, GLD, more)
It was another Ben Bernanke to the rescue day for the markets as the latest Federal Reserve commentary has rates likely remaining low till the end of 2014 now. Again, more bad news for savers and investors that remain sitting mostly in cash.
We continue to monitor earnings season closely, and despite today’s Fed announcement, we remain super-selective in our recommendations. As much as we would like to add a bunch of new names to our Best Dividend Stocks List, we’re still wary of how many companies continue to offer cautious guidance (as well as lowered guidance). If valuation was a concern before, you can bet we’re even more alert now that these lower earnings numbers are coming in.
Looking at some of the big movers on earnings-related news today, shares of Textron (TXT), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), and Polaris Industries (PII) jumped higher on better-than-expected earnings news, while shares of Wellpoint Inc. (WLP) (earnings here), W.W. Grainger (GWW) (report here), Corning (GLW) (more here), and Hess Corp (HES) all ended lower following their results. It was a big day for Gold (GLD) prices as investors see the printing press effect on U.S. dollars as a reason to get long the yellow metal.
Can Apple Sustain its Momentum?
The big name that the markets were glued to last night was tech titan Apple Corporation (AAPL), which easily blew away earnings estimates in their latest report. Many dividend investors are probably eying these shares, wishing Apple would pay a dividend. With nearly $ 100 billion in cash sitting in its coffers, we’ll likely see some form of a dividend initiated by Apple, but only time will tell.
Market Wrap-Up for Jan.19 (MS, UNP, BLK, UNH, JCI, EK, GS, more)
This morning’s jobless claims number, which indicated the lowest read since 2008, brought continued optimism to the markets. All major indices held on to the early gains to finish up once again.
Earnings helped move the tape upward as well. The reaction to reports from Morgan Stanley (MS) (read the report here) and Union Pacific (UNP) (earnings here) were bullish, while there was some hesitancy from investors in reaction to results from UnitedHealth Group (UNH) (report here), Johnson Controls (JCI), and BlackRock (BLK) (report here). As I warned earlier this week, don’t be surprised to see a negative reaction on seemingly good earnings results, or vice-versa.
In other news, Goldman Sachs (GS) added to yesterday’s big pop as well. Overseas markets have followed suit with the U.S. indices thus far, as we continue to see a bounce higher in early 2012.
Eastman Kodak Bankruptcy Spurs Trader Panic
Plenty of risk-happy day traders are left scrambling today on news that Eastman Kodak (EK) officially filed for bankruptcy. The NYSE also immediately suspended trading of EK shares and delisted the stock. I now hear that the stock is trading on the OTC market (pink sheets), so the risk-takers may have an outlet to salvage a portion of the money they foolishly sank into Kodak.
Market Preview: A Most Unimpressive Rally
Updated from 6: 42 p.m. ET to add information on U.S. Bancorp, Research In Motion and F5 Networks.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Stocks opened this holiday-shortened trading week with another yet another polite gain on Tuesday but there’s reason to believe the sidelines are getting mighty crowded.
According to research from TrimTabs, a whopping $ 889 billion went into checking and savings accounts in the first 11 months of 2011 vs. $ 109 billion for stock and bond mutual funds and ETFs over the same period. Data on December is not yet available.
…
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits)
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits)
Investing is all about common sense. Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winner’s game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), but after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser’s game. Common sense tells us—and history confirms—that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation’s publicly held businesses a
Market Wrap-Up for Jan.13 (JPM, C, MS, UPS, GE, MSFT, more)
The markets traded down for much of the day, first on the so-so earnings report from J.P. Morgan (JPM), but then on the story S&P was set to lower debt ratings for several European nations. Despite the early overhang of both negative catalysts, the market was able to finish off the lows.
As I mentioned earlier this week, we are evaluating numerous dividend candidates for potential additions to our Best Dividend Stocks List. We’ll alert Dividend.com Premium subscribers if and when we make any changes. In the meantime, lower share prices could be a good thing for dividend investors that have capital to deploy.
J.P. Morgan (JPM) did give back some of this year’s gains following a ho-hum earnings report out this morning. The selling did spread to its competitors, including Citigroup (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), and Goldman Sachs (GS). Elsewhere, Wall Street downgrades played a role in today’s down tape, with shares of United Parcel Service (UPS) and PNC Financial (PNC) ending lower. Bucking the selling were shares of supermarket chain Safeway (SWY), which caught some positive commentary as it related to a better jobs environment likely helping the stock if recent data trends maintain.
What Did the Market Do Today?
Market Wrap-Up for Jan.10 (TIF, CF, GS, BAC, MS, WMT, more)
The gap-ups in stock prices we continue to see on up days causes a tremendous amount of angst for market watchers who remain on the sidelines. I totally understand the frustration investors face, but that’s why consistently putting a certain amount of money to work each month is so important for the everyday investor. This practice takes you right out of the “timing the markets” business.
I urge investors not to become too infatuated with finding the “perfect” entry point to buy shares at. Within our DARS™ Rating System, we never pinpoint exact share prices to the penny. That’s unrealistic and will only keep you paralyzed by your analysis.
So, what pushed the market action today? Rallies in the overseas markets overnight appear to be the early catalyst. Hence, the early gap-ups we consistently see each morning in our own markets.
The market has continually ignored cautionary earnings notes in the last couple of weeks. This morning’s example was Tiffany & Co. (TIF) telling analysts to lower their expectations. In contrast, bullish commentary continues to push commodity-related names higher, including today’s bullish calls on EOG Resources (EOG) and CF Industries (CF).
