European Winds Shift to Calm — Monday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | May 7, 2012 5:19 pm

[1]Investors and the stock market managed to fend off fears over the direction of European policies and markets after this weekend’s elections in Greece and France[2], staging an afternoon rally to finish mixed.

Worries that new governments in Greece and France will move away from current austerity measures set the markets back in early trading; however, European markets rallied during the day, setting the stage for the market recovery. The Dow recovered to finish down marginally at 13,027, the Nasdaq gained 0.24% to finish at 2,963, and the S&P ended up 0.18% to 1,371.

On the domestic front, shares of bailed-out insurer AIG (NYSE:AIG[3]) fell 3.6% after the Treasury Department announced[4] that it was planning to sell 163.9 million shares for $30.50 each.

DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH[5]) also fell Monday, shedding 1.2% after announcing that its net income plunged to $360 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to $549 million in the year-ago quarter.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC[6]) announced another dividend hike[7], the company’s third increase in an 18-month period — however, investors were nonplussed, and INTC actually lost less than a percent.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM[8]) once again claimed the top spot in the Fortune 500 list, taking over from Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT[9]). Exxon is riding high on increases in their natural gas operations, and profit soared during 2011 to $41 billion on $452 billion in revenues. Again, the news did little for investors, and XOM finished down marginally.

Investor Carl Icahn led a successful purchase of CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI[10]) as shareholders overwhelmingly approved[11] his plan to overhaul the petroleum refining and marketing company for $30 a share, plus a contingent value right.

Facebook announced it was working on a plan to allow retail investors an opportunity to purchase shares[12] in their upcoming IPO through online brokers, at the same time opening up the number of shares available.

Tomorrow’s notable earnings reports include DirectTV (NASDAQ:DTV[13]), OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX[14]), and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS[15]).

Three Up

• Synacor (NASDAQ:SYNC[16]): Up 15% ($1.71) to $13.10.
• United Continental (NYSE:UAL[17]): Up 5.9% ($1.31) to $23.59.
• Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN[18]): Up 4.9% (49 cents) to $10.46.

Three Down

• Broadsoft (NASDAQ:BSFT[19]): Down 18.9% ($7.74) to $33.15.
• Tempur-Pedic (NYSE:TPX[20]): Down 14.9% ($8.42) to $48.29.
• Weight Watchers (NYSE:WTW[21]): Down 4.4% ($2.72) to $59.46.

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

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/05/european-winds-shift-to-calm-mondays-ip-market-recap-intc-xom-wmt/

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