The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded from the opening, up almost 103 points to over 11,508, a gain of about 0.9%. Strong earnings, inflation data and news that Germany would work closely to assist Greece had traders willing to buy riskier assets. Fitch also reaffirmed its AAA credit rating for the United States. For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 7.3%. It has also regained its losses for the year, down only about 0.5% now for 2011.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was up again on news of an asset sale, rising about 12 cents to over $7.50, a jump of more than 1.6%. Bank of America is in negotiations to sell real estate assets from its Merrill Lynch unit to Blackstone for a reported $1 billion. Earlier this month, Bank of America sold its Canadian credit card unit to TD Dominion. It also was released this morning that Bank of America is moving to reach agreements with the state attorney general from New York and others in its continuing effort to settle mortgage probes.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) was turning on the power with a nearly 2% early rise, around 30 cents, to over $16.50. Down more than 11% for the month, General Electric is up more than 1% for the week and almost 7% for the year.
Strong revenues had Home Depot (NYSE:HD) continuing to rise, up about 2.2% per share to over $33.90, gaining more than 80 cents. Wall Street is favoring Home Depot’s direction over Lowe’s, which has share prices for HD up almost 10% for the week. Home Depot reported higher second-quarter earnings of 14%.
Investors can hear Verizon (NYSE:VZ) better now that it announced expansion of its 4G network, ringing in early-action gains of more than 60 cents, better than 1.75%, to about $35.50 a share. Verizon also announced it was taking a harder line with its striking workers.
Although good numbers have it up almost 3% for the week, Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) was down about 0.33% in morning trade to under $51.60, a drop of more than 20 cents. Investors still have concerns about flagging same-store sales for Wal-Mart in the United States, as well as low consumer confidence. For the year, Wal-Mart is up almost 5%.
Down more than 2.3% was Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) to under $31.90 a share, a loss of about 75 cents. BMO downgraded Hewlett-Packard this morning, citing lower growth expected for the personal computer market. Dell released poor numbers this morning, which has the entire tech sector down, confirming the lower sales projections. For the week, Hewlett Packard is up more than 3.4%.
Jonathan Yates does not own any of the stocks mentioned in this article.
