Mixed-Up Markets Finish Up — Thursday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | April 26, 2012 5:22 pm

[1]U.S. stocks followed up on Wednesday’s positive momentum with another move north Thursday despite weak news on the unemployment front and a mixed bag of earnings reports.

The Dow finished the day up 0.91% to 13,000, while the S&P rose 0.69% to 1,400 and the Nasdaq 0.71% to 3,050.

A number of big names declined on earnings news Thursday, including Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM[2]), UPS (NYSE:UPS[3]) and Aetna (NYSE:AET[4]).

Health care giant Aetna was pummeled by more than 8% after it reported a first-quarter earnings decline of 13% to $411 million ($1.43 per share), falling short of Wall Street expectations of $1.40. UPS fell 1.75% as earnings rose 6% to $970 million ($1 per share) but just missed analyst estimates.  Exxon reported first-quarter earnings of $9.45 billion ($2 per share), down from $10.65 billion ($2.14) it earned a year earlier and missing estimates of $2.09 per share. XOM fell less than 1% on the news.

Meanwhile, first-quarter profit at Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS[5]) slid 7%; however, core results still topped expectations, and the company lifted its full-year guidance, sending shares rocketing up 12% to a close of over $86.

The auto industry continues to see a rebound[6], as Chrysler reported its best quarter in more than 13 years. The automaker earned $473 million in the quarter, more than quadruple the $116 million it earned in the year-earlier period. All eyes will now turn to Ford (NYSE:F[7]) and General Motors (NYSE:GM[8]) who report tomorrow and May 3, respectively.

Afternoon headlines were dominated by earnings news from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN[9]) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX[10]).

Amazon was soaring by more than 12% in early after-hours trading after it reported first-quarter net income of 28 cents per share. The figure was down from 44 cents per share last year, but better than estimates for 7 cents per share. Sales also increased, to $13.18 billion from $9.86 billion in the previous year.

Net income for Starbucks rose to $309.9 million (40 cents per share) vs. $261.6 million (34 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier, with revenues up 14.7% to $3.2 billion; analysts were looking for EPS of 39 cents. SBUX shares were trading down nearly 5%.

Three Up

• Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ:CRUS[11]): Up 18.6% ($4.30) to $27.39.
• PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM[12]): Up 10.1% (88 cents) to $9.58.
• Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE:COG[13]): Up 7.2% ($2.22) to $33.

Three Down

• Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM[14]): Down 14.5% ($5.60) to $33.15.
• H&R Block (NYSE:HRB[15]): Down 10.7% ($1.79) to $14.95.
• Crocs (NASDAQ:CROX[16]): Down 8.1% ($1.78) to $20.26.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL and XOM.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/04/thursdays-ip-market-recap-xom-ups-aet-ctxs-cvx/

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