Stocks end higher; S&P 500 has 6th straight gain
The S&P's winning streak is its longest since December 2010 as US shares come back from early losses. China reports almost no export growth in July. JC Penney shows a loss, but shares jump. Manchester United shares get little respect.
Updated at 8:29 p.m. ETThanks to a burst of late-day buying, stocks finished modestly higher today despite worries about slowing growth in China.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) closed with its sixth straight gain, its longest winning streak since December 2010, rising 3% in the process. The major indexes finished higher for the fifth straight week.
The major averages are up at least 4% since July 26. But the rally's downside is that it comes in the middle of summer when most big money managers are on vacation. So trading volume has been quite light -- less than 500 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange today.
Giving the market at least some support today was a rally in shares of J.C. Penney (JCP), though the company reported a fiscal-second-quarter loss. Penney shares were up $1.30 to $23.40. The stock had reached as high as $24.57 after CEO Ron Johnson vowed to stay the course with a strategy of everyday low prices. The gain was third-best among S&P 500 performers. Shares of upscale rival Nordstrom (JWN) were up $1.05 to $56.13 after the company boosted its guidance for the fiscal year.
The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) closed up 43 points to 13,208. The blue chips had been down as much as 70 points. The S&P 500 was up 3 points to 1,406 after falling to as low as 1,396. The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) was up 2 points to 3,021, with the push to the black coming in the last half-hour of trading.
Article continues below. The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks, was up 3 points to 2,723. Apple (AAPL), the biggest influence on the index, was up 97 cents to $621.70 and ended the week up 1%.
The market was held back by weakness in energy, materials and consumer stocks. Telecommunications, health care and utilities were higher. Crude oil (-CL) was lower in New York, although gold (-GC) finished higher.
The Dow finished up 0.9% for the week, with the S&P 500 up 1.1% and the Nasdaq and Nasdaq-100 both up 1.8%. For the year, the Dow is up 8.1%. The S&P 500 is up 12%, with the Nasdaq up 18.7%.
| Markets for the week | ||||||||||||
| 8/10/2012 | 8/3/2012 | % chg. | YTD chg. | |||||||||
| Dow Industrials | 13,207.95 | 13,096.17 | 0.85% | 8.11% | ||||||||
| S&P 500 | 1,405.87 | 1,390.99 | 1.07% | 11.79% | ||||||||
| Nasdaq | 3,020.86 | 2,967.90 | 1.78% | 15.96% | ||||||||
| Russell 2000 | 801.53 | 788.48 | 1.66% | 8.18% | ||||||||
| Crude oil | $92.87 | $91.40 | 1.61% | -6.03% | ||||||||
| (per barrel) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00% | 0.00% | ||||||||
| U.S. Dollar Index | 82.63 | 82.45 | 0.22% | 2.62% | ||||||||
| 10-yr. Treasury | 1.65% | 1.58% | 4.57% | -11.87% | ||||||||
| Gold | $1,622.80 | 1,609.30 | 0.84% | 3.57% | ||||||||
The big weight on the market today came from China, which reported that export growth was close to zero in July, down from an 11.3% gain in June, the customs bureau said. Imports rose 4.7%, compared with the estimate for a 7% gain and a 6.3% increase in June, Bloomberg News said.
The report raised the odds that the government will take more aggressive measures to support an economy that grew 7.6% in the second quarter, the slowest pace since 2009.
The report pushed stocks in Asia and Europe lower. Japan's Nikkei-225 Index ($JP:N225) was off 87 points to 8,891. Germany's Xetra Dax Index ($DE:DAX) was down 20 points to 6,945. Like the U.S. indexes, the Nikkei and European stocks are ending the week higher.
A busy week ahead
The second-quarter earning season comes to its unofficial end next week.
Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Home Depot (HD) report quarterly results, along with Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), Target (TGT) and farm equipment manufacturer Deere (DE).
Economic date include the Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index reports on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
A report on housing starts comes Thursday, along with the weekly updates on jobless claims and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank's monthly report on manufacturing in its district.
Corn falls despite reduce U.S. crop estimate
The Agriculture Department reduced its estimate for the corn (-ZC) crop by nearly 17% and raised the upper end of its price forecast by 39% to $8.90 a bushel. Forecasters also made a sizable reduction in their outlook for the nation's soybean (-ZS) crop. The cuts weren't a surprise, because of the worst drought since 1988.
Despite the news, corn was off 13.25 cents to $8.105 a bushel. Wheat (-ZW) was off 26.5 cents to $8.865 a bushel. Soybeans were up 13 cents to $16.445 a bushel.
Crude slips; gold pushes higher
Crude oil settled down 49 cents to $92.87 after falling to as low as $91.71 on the Chinese news and finished up 1.6% for the week. Brent crude was off 15 cents to $113.07 a barrel.
The retail price of gasoline, however, moved up 1.1 cents to $3.673 a gallon, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. For the week, gasoline moved up 3% and is up 10% since June 30. It's also 1% higher than a year ago.
Gold settled up $2.60 to $1,622.80 an ounce, but silver (-SI) and copper (-HG) were off slightly.
| Energy prices -- New York close | ||||||||||||
| Fri. | Thur. | Month chg. | YTD chg. | |||||||||
| Crude oil (-CL) | $92.87 | $93.36 | 5.46% | -6.03% | ||||||||
| (per barrel) | ||||||||||||
| Heating oil (-HO) | $3.0205 | $3.0450 | 6.06% | 3.65% | ||||||||
| (per gallon) | ||||||||||||
| Natural gas (-NG) | $2.7700 | $2.9450 | -13.68% | -7.33% | ||||||||
| (per mil. BTU) | ||||||||||||
| Unleaded gasoline (-RB) | $3.0039 | $3.0008 | 8.28% | 13.04% | ||||||||
| (per gallon) | ||||||||||||
| Brent crude | $112.95 | $113.22 | 7.65% | 5.19% | ||||||||
| (per barrel) | ||||||||||||
| Retail gasoline | $3.6730 | $3.6620 | 4.94% | 12.12% | ||||||||
| (per gallon; AAA) | ||||||||||||
Manchester United struggles; Goldman Sachs, Yahoo trade lower
Shares of the Manchester United (MANU) soccer franchise closed at $14 on its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange. But the close was a disappointment because it was the price at which the company went public late Thursday. The stock might have moved lower but didn't because the syndicate of underwriters for the company bought shares to support the price, CNBC reported.
Goldman Sachs (GS) was down 58 cents to $103.02 despite the Justice Department's announcement late Thursday that it won't file criminal charges against the financial giant or Goldman employees for financial fraud related to the mortgage crisis, following a yearlong investigation.
Yahoo (YHOO) was off 86 cents to $15.15 on news that CEO Marissa Mayer has started a strategy review that may result in a reversal of plans to restructure operations and return billions of dollars in cash to shareholders from the sale of its stake in Chinese website Ali Baba.
Research In Motion (RIMM) shares were up 49 cents to $8.29 on speculation IBM (IBM) is interested in buying its enterprise business unit. Bloomberg News said IBM made an informal approach about possibly acquiring the division, which operates a network of secure servers used to support RIM’s BlackBerry devices.
Zynga (ZNGA) shares were down 6 cents to $2.95. The shares are down 70.5% since going public at $10 on Dec. 15, 2011. The company has been dogged bad publicity. On Wednesday, Zynga’s COO John Schappert resigned, after only 15 months on the job. Zynga recently reported weak second-quarter earnings and cut its guidance for 2012. Though both its user numbers and revenue increased, analysts and investors had expected more. The Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog reported today that a number of ech companies are starting to see "a flood of resumes" from employees dismayed by the collapsing stock price. Bloomberg News said today the company distributed shares to employees to offset the stock price decline -- and keep employees from quitting.
And two weeks ago, Zynga reported a second-quarter earnings flop that led to its stock sliding by 40 percent. It has remained relatively stable at these depressed levels ever since,
A bias to the downside
Twenty-one of the 30 Dow stocks were higher, led by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Alcoa (AA) and McDonald's (MCD). American Express (AXP), Cisco and Walt Disney (DIS) were the laggards.
Meanwhile, 215 S&P 500 stocks were higher, led by medical-equipment maker Carefusion (CFN), J.C. Penney and Harman International (HAR). The laggards were Big Lots (BIG), Yahoo and Nabors Industries (NBR).
Fifty-nine Nasdaq-100 stocks were higher, led by Research In Motion, Liberty Interactive (LINTA) and Seagate Technology (STX). Monster Beverage (MNST) and Yahoo were the laggards.
| Short hits from the markets -- New York close | ||||||||||||
| Fri. | Thur. | Month chg. | YTD chg. | |||||||||
| Treasury yields | ||||||||||||
| 13-week Treasury bill | 0.1000% | 0.110% | 0.00% | 900.00% | ||||||||
| 5-year Treasury note | 0.696% | 0.728% | 16.19% | -16.14% | ||||||||
| 10-year Treasury note | 1.649% | 1.688% | 10.52% | -11.87% | ||||||||
| 30-year Treasury bond | 2.737% | 2.750% | 6.21% | -5.26% | ||||||||
| Currencies | ||||||||||||
| U.S. Dollar Index | 82.631 | 82.710 | -0.10% | 2.62% | ||||||||
| British pound | 1.5689 | 1.5642 | 0.05% | 0.97% | ||||||||
| (in U.S. $) | ||||||||||||
| U.S. $ in pounds | £0.637 | £0.639 | -0.05% | -0.96% | ||||||||
| Euro in dollars | $1.23 | $1.23 | -0.05% | -5.11% | ||||||||
| (in U.S. $) | ||||||||||||
| U.S. $ in euros | € 0.813 | € 0.812 | 0.05% | 5.39% | ||||||||
| U.S. $ in yen | 78.43 | 78.59 | 0.40% | 1.73% | ||||||||
| U.S. $ in Chinese | 6.38 | 6.36 | 0.39% | 0.90% | ||||||||
| yuan | ||||||||||||
| Canada dollar | $1.0094 | $1.0091 | 1.24% | 2.89% | ||||||||
| (in U.S. $) | ||||||||||||
| U.S. dollar | $0.991 | $0.991 | -1.14% | -2.81% | ||||||||
| (in Canadian $) | ||||||||||||
| Commodities | ||||||||||||
| Gold (-GC) | $1,622.80 | $1,620.20 | 0.76% | 3.57% | ||||||||
| (per troy ounce) | ||||||||||||
| Copper (-HG) | $3.393 | $3.425 | -0.73% | -1.27% | ||||||||
| (per pound) | ||||||||||||
| Silver (-SI) | $28.0620 | $28.0970 | 0.53% | 0.53% | ||||||||
| (per troy ounce) | ||||||||||||
| Wheat (-ZW) | $8.8525 | $9.1300 | -0.34% | 35.62% | ||||||||
| (per bushel) | ||||||||||||
| Corn (-ZC) | $8.0925 | $8.238 | 0.50% | 25.17% | ||||||||
| (per bushel) | ||||||||||||
| Cotton | $0.7302 | 0.7595 | 2.35% | -20.35% | ||||||||
| (per pound) | ||||||||||||
| Coffee | $1.6935 | 1.6955 | -2.90% | -26.26% | ||||||||
| (per pound) | ||||||||||||
| Crude oil (-CL) | $92.87 | $93.36 | 5.46% | -6.03% | ||||||||
| (per barrel) | ||||||||||||
Hey Congress... if you aren't shutting down Wall Street this weekend... you must be owned by them. Let's AUDIT CONGRESS.
We don't have a stock market anymore. We have a Fed / ECB watch market. Stocks are just the instruments used to carry out the corresponding movements based on the actions of those two bodies. For the last two years, the movements in the markets are nothing more than a Pavlovian reaction to artificial market manipulation by those two entities.
Since i don't really care about how the Wall Street Casino does in general i'd just like to say........ will someone take an Electric Cattle Prod to that orange haired movie theater massacre moron !!
I'm sick of watching him look like he's relaxing in a hammock on a white sand beach somewhere and ready to fall asleep. He's on trial for mass murder. Wake him the hell up and force him to pay attention and show some sense of respect. And while your at it, take that Cattle Prod to these "date site" ad posters.
Obama good for the Stock Market is BS ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
The only thing Obama is good at is talking and running the USA in to more debt and in to the ground! If it was not for the stock market droping so much because of Obama winning the White House we would not be in the mess we are in.
Obama has = Higher gas prices, higher food prices, less investment in America, our money being worth less, and less people liking America and it's people, and less jobs.
Four more years of this and we might as well just kill ourselfs to end our pain.
Here are The Top Five! Things Obama thinks Government should do for you. After today’s speech by President Obama, where he outlined his budget plan, it seems that Obama believes that only government can help you, or provide for you.
5 – Give you Cake. (See Marie Antionette.)
4 – All the roads will be rebuilt and perfectly paved for you to ride your bike, since gas will be $43/gallon.
3 – Show you all the ways it’s George Bush’s fault.
2 – Save you from yourself.
1 – Deride Republicans for attempting to pass a budget that Democrats didn’t do when they were in charge, and still refuse to do.
RELATED ARTICLES
DATA PROVIDERS
Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.
Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges.
Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information.
Japanese stock price data provided by Nomura Research Institute Ltd.; quotes delayed 20 minutes. Canadian fund data provided by CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd.
RECENT QUOTES
WATCHLIST
MARKET UPDATE
| NAME | LAST | CHANGE | % CHANGE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| There’s a problem getting this information right now. Please try again later. | ||||
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 settled lower by 0.8% after early strength turned into afternoon weakness.
Today's headline event came in the form of Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee. During his remarks, Chairman Bernanke said premature tightening of monetary policy could stall the pace of recovery. This followed weeks of conflicting remarks from FOMC members, which sparked speculation regarding possible changes to the Fed's policy course.
However, ... More
More Market News
Currencies
| NAME | LAST | CHANGE | % CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|
| There’s a problem getting this information right now. Please try again later. | |||
LATEST MARKET DISPATCHES
- No more Dispatches; here's where to find market news
The Market Dispatches column has been discontinued. Here's where to find the latest stock and business news on MSN Money, and the latest from market writer Charley Blaine.
- Dow falls 59 as late-day gloom kills a rally
- Stocks held back by fiscal-cliff worries
- Stocks suffer worst weekly loss in 5 months
- Dow off 121 as post-election swoon continues
- Dow slumps 313 after Obama's re-election
- Dow jumps 133 as Americans head to the polls
TOP STOCKS
The market's cheap money addiction is laid bare. No one knows how it will end.
