Investing
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell -- Friday: Markets Open Low, Close Mixed
April 26, 2013 4:06 pm
Last Updated: March 23, 2020 10:44 am
U.S. equity markets opened lower this morning after hearing that U.S. GDP growth in the first quarter came in at 2.5%, well below the expected 3.1% (more coverage here). U.S. consumer sentiment also fell, but not by as much as expected (more coverage here
The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.30% today, now at 82.492. The GSCI commodity index is up 1.7% at 625.15. WTI crude oil closed down 0.7%, at $93.00 a barrel, but closed the week up 5.4%. Brent crude trades down 0.5% at $102.88 a barrel. Natural gas is down 0.4% today at about $4.17 per million BTUs. Gold settled down 0.6% today at $1,453.60 an ounce, but held a gain of 4.2% for the week.
The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 13 points to 14,713.85 (0.09%), the NASDAQ fell nearly 11 points (-0.33%) to 3,279.26, and the S&P 500 fell -0.18% or about 3 points to 1,582.25.
There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) raised to ‘buy’ at BB&T; SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) raised to ‘outperform’ at Baird (more coverage here); Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (NYSE: BUD) cut to ‘conviction sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) raised to ‘strong buy’ at Raymond James; and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a price target of $65 at Argus.
Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading: Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is down 6.7% at $256.32 (more coverage here); Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is down 7.8% at $85.12; Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) is up 3.8% at $3.44; Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) is down fractionally at $55.00; HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS) is up 2.2% at $27.13 after posting a new 52-week high of $27.99 earlier today; Olin Corp. (NYSE: OLN) is down 5.6% at $24.53; Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC) is down 4.3% at $74.16; Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) is down 0.8% at $60.03; Wynn Resorts, Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) is up 0.8% at $136.02; Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is down 4.3% at $1.34; Burger King Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: BKW) is up 1.1% at $18.26; Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) is up 1.5% at $120.23 (more coverage here); National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) is down 1.3% at $66.34 (more coverage here); and VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) is down 2.2% at $174.83.
Before markets open Monday morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN), Loews Corp. (NYSE: L), Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH), and Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ: SOHU).
Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:
J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) is up 13.8% at $17.34. The retailing giant got a major investment yesterday from George Soros. More coverage here.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) is up 7% at $3.35. The social games company is gaining back its loss following a poor earnings report on Wednesday night that weighed on the stock yesterday.
Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) is down 2.7% at $18.55. The gold miner is getting hit by today’s drop in gold prices.
Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):
Have a great weekend!