The U.S. dollar index rose today, now up 0.42% at 79.889. The GSCI commodity index is up fractionally at 658.56, with commodities prices down on the stronger dollar. WTI crude oil closed down 1.5% today, at $89.98 a barrel, the lowest close in nearly two months even though today’s inventory report posted a decline in crude stocks (more coverage here). Brent crude trades down 0.5% at $109.86 a barrel. Natural gas is up 3.4% today to $3.023 per thousand cubic feet. Gold closed at $1,753.60 an ounce, down 0.7%.
The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down about 44 points to 13,413.59 (-0.33%), the NASDAQ fell about 24 points (-0.77%) to 3,093.70, and the S&P 500 fell -0.57% or more than 8 points to 1,433.32.
There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) cut to ‘hold’ at Stifel Nicolaus; Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) raised to ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs; SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) cut to ‘market perform’ at JMP Securities; Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) reiterated as ‘neutral’ with a target price of $23 at BofA/ML; and Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) cut to ‘hold’ at Jefferies and raised to ‘buy’ at S&P Equity Research.
Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these: Jabil Circuit Inc. (NYSE: JBL) is down 9.7% at $18.93 (more coverage here) and Synnex Corp. (NYSE: SNX) is down 5.7% at $32.30.
Before markets open tomorrow we are scheduled to hear from Progress Software Corp. (NASDAQ: PRGS), Worthington Industries Inc. (NYSE: WOR), HB Fuller Co. (NYSE: FUL), Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), and McCormick & Company Inc. (NYSE: MKC).
Some standouts from today include the following stocks:
Life Partners Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LPHI) is up 138.4% at $3.48. The life insurance settlement company beat back a lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General. More coverage here.
Gevo Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) is down 12.6% at $1.87 after posting a new 52-week low of $1.77 earlier today. The biofuel maker will switch an isobutanol plant to ethanol production, a backward move brought on by some technical issues.
Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is up 6% at $7.00. The smartphone maker added 2 million subscribers in its most recent quarter according to comments by the company’s CEO.
American Greetings Corp. (NYSE: AM) is up 17.1% at $16.79. The greeting card company has received a buyout offer from the family of founder Zev Weiss in a go-private deal valuing the company at $581 million ($17.18 a share).
Stay tuned for Thursday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):
- 8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
- 8:30 a.m. – GDP
- 8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
- 8:30 a.m. – Corporate profits
- 10:00 a.m. – Pending home sales
- 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly natural gas storage report
- 11:00 a.m. – Kansas City Fed manufacturing index
- 1:00 p.m. – 7-year note auction
- 3:00 p.m. – Farm prices
- 4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply
Paul Ausick
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