Stocks had fairly little news to trade off today, but the markets continued their upward trend. Big-cap tech stocks were the relative winners; EMC, Amazon.com, Cisco, and Hewlett-Packard were all up over 2%.
Crude oil was also in the news after a very volatile session. Prices finished the day basically unchanged, but traded in a $6 range. Natural gas fell on a very bearish inventory report.
In economic news, last week’s initial jobless claims came in at 371,000, up 6,000 from the previous week. This number was pretty much in-line with expectations. This weekly piece of data has not shown signs of deterioration amidst recessionary talks and is a very bullish indicator. Industrial production for April decreased 0.7%, which was below the expected 0.3% decrease. The Manufacturing Index (
GE announced it is looking to sell or spin-off its appliance unit. The company is looking to divest its low margin, underperforming businesses. GE is looking for $5-8B for this business segment.
Retailers got a boost today because JC Penney, Kohl’s, and Nordstrom all beat analysts estimates. Retailers, specifically Costco and Wal-Mart, have significantly outperformed the market this year.
Transocean and many other offshore drillers were up big after UBS upgraded them to “buy.”
CBS announced it will buy CNET Networks for $1.8B, or $11.50 per share – a 45% premium.
DJIA 12,992.66 +94.28 (+0.73%)
Nasdaq 2,533.73 +37.03 (+1.48%)
S&P 500 1,423.57 +14.91 (+1.06%)
NYSE Volume 3,811,331,000
2-Yr Bond 2.45% -0.08
10-Yr Bond 3.83% -0.09
30-Yr Bond 4.56% -0.07
Crude Oil (June) 124.12 -0.10
Nat Gas (June) 11.399 -0.199
Gold (June) 880.00 +13.50
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