Equities Update: Solid Session, Week Land DJIA Nearly Even for the Year
July 23, 2010 | about: DIA / MSFT / QQQQ / SPY / VZ
4:36 PM, Jul 23, 2010
* DJIA up 102.3 (+1%) to 10,425
* S&P 500 up 9 (+0.8%) to 1,103
* Nasdaq up 23 (+1.1%) to 2,269
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
* Hang Seng up 1.1%
* Nikkei up 2.3%
* FTSE down 0.02%
UPSIDE MOVERS
(+) ARM inks license deal with Microsoft (MSFT)
(+) BAX added to Conviction Buy list at Goldman.
(+) NOK upgraded.
(+) HON tops Q2 estimates, guides in line.
(+) F beats Q2 expectations.
(+) BIDU upgraded.
(+) ATHN beats with earnings.
(+) VZ beats with earnings, shy with revenue.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
(-) AMZN continues evening slide seen after earnings miss.
(-) MCD down despite earnings beat.
(-) RST downgraded.
(-) KMB beats with earnings but cuts sales view.
(-) ERIC sales drop vs year ago levels, profits miss.
(-) SLB reports in line.
(-) EL downgraded.
(-) MSFT firms after choppy evening session followed earnings beat.
MARKET DIRECTION
Stocks end in the upper end of the day's range, landing the broad S&P 500 above 1,100 for the first time this month and pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average back to within a few points of positive territory for the year. Lack of downside surprises in the European bank stress test report, a dividend hike from GE (GE) and mostly positive earnings, including from a handful of big blue-chips, combined to lift Wall Street.
The DJIA ends the week up 3.2%, the S&P 500 up 3.6% and the Nasdaq Composite up 4.2%.
All but 7 of 91 European banks passed the much-anticipated "stress tests" aimed at showing Europe's banking system is sound enough to weather the continent's debt crisis -- an outcome that officials hoped would forestall further market turmoil.
It had been thought that some banks needed to fail for the exercise to be accepted as credible, and some analysts still argued that the results showed the tests weren't rigorous enough, the AP reported.
The European Union said the results "confirm the overall resilience" of the continent's banking system.
European banking shares were lower ahead of the official release, weighing slightly on U.S. financial shares earlier in the day; most major bank stocks are higher late in the day. The euro declined.
GE is up 4%, lifting the broader market after hiking its dividend 20%, a big move that signaled restored confidence in the recovery.
Verizon (VZ) was among the earnings-driven gainers.
No major U.S. economic data were due for release Friday, leaving European reports in the spotlight for a second day.
The German Ifo business-climate index rose to 106.2 in July from a reading of 101.8 in June, the Munich-based Ifo Institute reported.
The U.K.'s gross domestic product grew by a much stronger-than-expected 1.1% in the second quarter, government data showed. Economists had forecast a quarterly rise of 0.6%.
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