Today’s big gainer among the Dow 30 was Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) which traded at $57.69, down 2.29% in a 52-week range of $44.62 to $59.84. Share volume was about 30% lower than the daily average of nearly 11 million shares traded. The company had no news today but hopes remain high for a new cancer drug and for approval of a new osteoporosis drug.
Investors appear to be a bit more sanguine about prospects for McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) today. Shares of the fast food traded higher by 0.79% at $101.28 in a 52-week range of $92.22 to $103.78. The company’s shares dropped more than 1% yesterday following an announcement that McDonald’s plans to return $18 to $20 billion to investors over the next three years. Share volume today was around 35% lower than the daily average of about 5 million shares.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) posted a gain of 0.93% today and traded at $79.31 in a 52-week range of $60.95 to $83.32. Volume was about 40% below the daily average of around 4.7million shares. The company had no news again today, but made a comeback from dropping about 0.7% in Wednesday trading.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) got taken to the woodshed yesterday by Institutional Shareholder Services which slammed the company for its executive pay and its handling of a bribery investigation in Mexico. The world’s largest retailer fired back today and shares rose 0.61% to $75.99 just ahead of the bell. The stock’s 52-week range is $71.51 to $81.37.
Of the Dow 30 stocks 24 looked to close higher today while 5 were on their way to a lower finish and one was set to finish dead flat.
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