Closing Bell for Friday on Wall Street: Markets Stagger to Modest Gains
July 12, 2013 by Paul AusickThe U.S. dollar index is trading up 0.30% today, now at 82.9980. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.4% at 641.56. WTI crude oil closed up 1% today, at $105.95 a barrel, and closed the week up 2.5%, and we wonder what price relief all that fracking brings. Brent crude trades up 1.1% at $108.82 a barrel. Natural gas is up 0.9% today at about $3.65 per million BTUs. Gold for August delivery settled down 0.2% today at $1,277.60, but closed the week up 5.4% for the largest weekly gain in nearly two years..
The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 3 points to 15,464.07 (0.02%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 22 points (0.61%) to 3,600.08, and the S&P 500 rose 0.31% or about 5 points to 1,680.18, a record high.
There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including:
- Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank;
- Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) cut to ‘sell’ and price target lowered to $53 at Goldman Sachs;
- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) cut to ‘hold’ at Jefferies;
- Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) cut to ‘hold’ at Deutsche Bank; and
- F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) raised to ‘overweight’ at Piper Jaffray.
Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading:
- Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is up 1.7% at $42.58 (our report), and
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is down 0.5% at $54.83 (our report).
Before markets open Monday morning we are scheduled to hear earnings results from Marketo Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTO) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C).
Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:
Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) is up 9% at $6.85. The wireless carrier is celebrating its first day of new ownership — and so are investors.
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) is down 5.5% at $101.13 after posting a new 52-week high of $108.15 earlier today. The aerospace and defense giant is getting hammered for another fire in its 787 Dreamliner and a mechanical malfunction that forced another plane to return to its point of origin.
WebMD Health Corp. (NASDAQ: WBMD) is up 26.2% at $34.00. The Internet health information company offered an wildly improved outlook this morning.
Stay tuned for Monday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):
- 8:30 a.m. – Retail sales
- 8:30 a.m. – Empire State manufacturing survey
- 10:00 a.m. – Business inventories
- 11:30 a.m. – 3- and 6-month bill auctions
Have a great weekend!