February 10, 2014: Markets opened slightly lower on Monday, and trading was mixed most of the day with Nasdaq posting a small gain and the other two major indexes posting a small loss. New Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to present the Fed’s required monetary policy report to the Congress tomorrow and traders may be waiting to hear what she has to say. The DJIA closed up 0.05%, the S&P 500 closed up 0.16%, and the Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.54%.
Today’s big loser among the Dow 30 stocks was UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH). Shares closed down 2.27% at $69.74 in a 52-week range of $52.51 to $77.33. The federal government is set to announce next week preliminary reimbursement rates for 2015 Medicare Advantage participants, of which UnitedHealth is the largest. The rates are expected to be lowered. UnitedHealth’s volume today was about 25% higher than the daily average of around 4.5 million shares.
Another Dow stock that weighed on the index today was McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) which posted a loss of 1.2% to close at $94.85. The fast food giant posted lower U.S. same-store sales in January. The company posted a same-store sales gain on better sales in Europe and the rest of the world. Trading volume was roughly 10% above the daily average of around 5.5 million shares traded.
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) fell 3.38% for the day to close at $34.89, in a 52-week week range of $26.19 to $41.85. Reports of discounts up to $7,000 on some pickup trucks during the coming President’s Day weekend sales have worried analysts and investors. Share volume was more than about a 50% higher than the daily average of around 25.7 million shares traded.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) got some support from Institutional Investor Services today in its dispute with activist investor Carl Icahn regarding an additional $50 billion share buyback. Icahn later said he was withdrawing his proposal. Apple shares closed up 1.78% at $528.92 in a 52-week range of $385.10 to $575.14. Apple’s volume was about 15% below the daily average of around 12.4 million shares.
Of the Dow 30 stocks 16 closed higher today while 14 closed lower.
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