Dow finishes up 33; Street lives with Alcoa results

8:19 p.m. ET

 

The good news in today's stock market is that bank stocks are higher for the fifth straight day. And chip stocks are doing nicely.

The rest of the market seems to have plodded along, with the major averages little changed. Commodities, including gold (-GC) and crude oil (-CL), were modestly lower.

The old worries about Europe haven't gone away; European stocks closed mostly lower. Investors were betting -- correctly -- that Alcoa's (AA) quarterly results wouldn't at least be in line with estimates. Revenue was better than expected, although the company lost 3 cents a share due to restructuring. The company sees global demand rising 7% this year. Shares rose 27 cents to $9.43 in regular trading and were up another penny after hours.

At the same time, Apple (AAPL) was one of a number of stocks that hit all-time highs. Apple peaked at $427.75 around 10:30 a.m. ET, thanks to two upgrades, but pulled back to $421.73, down 67 cents. Also hitting new all-time highs today: Nike (NKE), Union Pacific (UNP) and paint-maker Sherwin-Williams (SHW). 

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closed up 33 points to 12,393. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) added 3 points to 1,281. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) gained 2 points to 2,677, while the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX) was off 6 points to 2,351.

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Pulling the Nasdaq-100 lower was weakness in Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Costco Wholesale (COST). (Microsoft is the publisher of MSN Money.)

Nonetheless, the S&P 500 finished up 1.84 in the first five days of the year. In the 38 prior instances of gain in the first five days of the year, the index finished higher 33 times, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

Futures trading suggests will stocks will open higher on Tuesday. Japanese stocks opened higher in Tuesday trading.

But earnings from WD-40 (WDFC) and Standard Microsystems (SMSC) missed estimates, and Juniper Networks (JNPR) and Liz Claiborne (LIZ) lowered guidance after the close.

Zynga (ZYNG) shares ended the day 20% below their IPO price of $10.

Alcoa shares hold their own after earnings
We can say the Street is OK with Alcoa's results because the stock has either been up modestly or flat after hours. Moreover, the stock is up 9% since Dec. 30. That was after falling 43.8% in 2011, second-worst among the 30 Dow stocks.

At 5 p.m., it was flat as Alcoa said its loss came as prices fell some 27% during the year. One reason prices fell was huge production in China while demand globally dropped back, CEO Klaus Kleinfeld told CNBC today.

Kleinfeld guessed that a third of China's production is being made at a loss.

The company said it lost $193 million, or 18 cents a share, from continuing operations. Excluding restructuring costs, the loss came to $34 million or 3 cents a share.

Ahead of its quarterly results, Alcoa has been announcing closures of facilities. It expects to reduce its capacity by 12%. Last week, it said its Alcoa, Tenn., facility will be shuttered for good. Today, it said it's curtailing operations at three plants in Spain and Italy.

Alcoa lost 3 cents a share, in line with Street estimates, compared with 21 cents a share after the market became glutted with cheap aluminum. In September, the company had forecast 28 cents a share.

Revenue was $5.99 billion, ahead of the Street estimate of $5.78 billion and up from $5.65 billion a year ago.

A big payday for Apple's Cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook was rewarded handsomely in the 2010-11 fiscal year. The man who held the fort down while Steve Jobs was ailing and became CEO when Jobs resigned earned nearly $378 million. That includes $900,000 in salary and $376.18 million in restricted stock awards, the company's proxy statement says.

In the 2009-10 fiscal year, Cook earned more than $59 million, including $52.3 million in restricted stock, an $800,000 salary and a cash bonus of $5 million for serving as acting CEO again while Jobs was recovering from a liver transplant.

Apple's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday of September.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Mon.			Fri.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$101.31			$101.56			2.51%			2.51%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$3.0730			$3.0702			5.45%			5.45%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$3.0110			$3.0620			0.74%			0.74%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.7590			$2.7516			3.82%			3.82%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$112.45			$113.06			4.72%			4.72%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.3740			$3.3710			3.21%			3.21%
(per gallon; AAA)

Bank stocks make a move
Bank stocks generally suffered in 2011, with the KBW Bank Index ($BKX) down 24.6%. This year has started strongly, with the index up 6.6% this month, including a 1.2% gain today to 42. Bank of America (BAC), the poster child for problem banks, is up about 13%; shares rose 9 cents to $6.27; they had fallen to as low as $4.92 on Dec. 19.

It's not clear if investors see a turnaround in the bank's problems, which are mostly related to its disastrous 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial, or are simply speculating that the stock couldn't fall any lower.

But the fact is regional bank stocks were higher today after an upgrade from Credit Suisse.

It also could be that investors don't see the group overall falling much more. All 24 stocks in the KBW Index were higher last week, led by SunTrust Banks (STI) and Bank of America, up 11.6% and 11.2%, respectively.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) will be the first of the biggest banks to issue fourth-quarter results when it reports on Friday. Shares were off 6 cents to $35.30.

Bristol-Myers' big deal
Over the weekend, pharmaceutical maker Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) said it has agreed to buy Inhibitex (INHX)  for $26 a share, or $2.5 billion. The company is looking to boost its pipeline ahead of the loss of patent protection for its blood thinner Plavix.

The bid for Inhibitex is more than double Inhibitex's $9.87 close on Friday despite its main drug, for hepatitis C, only being in midstage trials.

Inhibitex was up $13.83 to $23.70. Bristol-Myers-Squibb​ was off 31 cents to $33.91.

Rivals in the market for hepatitis C were also higher. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX)  was up $1.63 to $35.68; Achillion Pharmaceuticals (ACHN) added $1.80 to $9.72.

Gold, oil drop modestly
Gold settled down $8.70 to $1,608.10 an ounce. Gold is still up 2.6% this month. Copper (-HG) was off 1.9 cents to $3.416 a pound, but silver (-SI) added 9.9 cents to $28.782 an ounce.

Crude oil, meanwhile, finished down 25 cents to $100.31, and Brent crude was off 87 cents to $112.19 a barrel.

The dollar was off slightly against the euro and the British pound. The 10-year Treasury yield was 1.96%, down from Friday's 1.961%.

The euro gained after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said today that they have made progress toward implementing tougher budget rules across the eurozone. They also said they would aim to foster stronger growth and job creation.

Alcoa leads the Dow; Netflix tops the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100
Alcoa's gain today was the best among the Dow stocks, followed by Bank of America and Caterpillar (CAT). Microsoft, McDonald's (MCD) and IBM (IBM) were the laggards.

Netflix (NFLX), continuing its big recovery from 2011's drubbing, jumped $11.89 to $98.18. That was the top performance among S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 stocks.

The stock jumped after hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson told CNBC he sees the company as a potential buyout target, with a market cap of $4.9 billion.

In five days of trading in 2012, the stock is up 41.7%.

Netflix was followed by Juniper Networks (JNPR) among S&P 500 stocks and by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), maker of the Keurig brewing system, among Nasdaq-100 stocks. 

Juniper, however, fell 2.1% after hours to $21.08 after warning fourth-quarter earnings will be 26 cents to 28 cents; the consensus estimate was 34 cents. Revenue will be $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion, compared with the Street estimate of $1.19 billion.

A total of 312 S&P 500 stocks were higher on the day, along with 54 Nasdaq-100 stocks.

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Mon.			Fri.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0100%			0.040%			0.00%			0.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.841%			0.856%			1.33%			1.33%
10-year Treasury note			1.960%			1.961%			4.76%			4.76%
30-year Treasury bond			3.029%			3.016%			4.85%			4.85%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			81.388			81.597			1.08%			1.08%
British pound			1.5451			1.5423			-0.56%			-0.56%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.647			£0.648			0.56%			0.56%
Euro in dollars			$1.27			$1.27			-1.67%			-1.67%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.785			€ 0.788			1.70%			1.70%
U.S. $ in yen			76.98			76.81			-0.15%			-0.15%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.34			6.31			0.17%			0.17%
yuan
Canada dollar			$0.975			$0.000			-0.65%			-0.65%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$1.027			$1.029			0.66%			0.66%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,608.10			$1,616.80			2.64%			2.64%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.416			$3.435			-0.58%			-0.58%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$28.7820			$28.6830			3.11%			3.11%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$6.4175			$6.2475			-1.69%			-1.69%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$6.5200			$6.44			0.85%			0.85%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.9612			0.9552			4.84%			4.84%
(per pound)
Coffee			$2.2465			2.2455			-2.18%			-2.18%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$101.31			$101.56			2.51%			2.51%
(per barrel)