U.S. markets kept up their momentum and moved broadly higher Tuesday despite some downbeat news on the housing front, as a continuation of last week’s merger news and a spate of positive corporate news had investors reaching for the phones or on their computers to fill buy orders.
Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 continue to reach towards their respective October 2007 highs, with the S&P 500 closing up 0.73% at 1,530.94, while the Dow settled in for gain of 0.39% at 14,035.67. The Nasdaq proved just as resilient, finishing up 0.68% to 3,213.60.
On the merger front, office supply retailers Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) and OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX) revealed they are in talks to join forces, and investors reacted by driving up shares in OMX by over 21% and ODP by nearly 10%. The merger news also bolstered competitor Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) to the tune of roughly 13%.
Also on the brick-and-mortar front, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) continued a recent surge, rising over 3% on the day after saying it make its price-matching program permanent. BBY is up more than 40% year-to-date.
Meanwhile, reports indicated that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is discussing opening up retail stores to sell some of its hardware offerings. The stock moved ahead nearly 2% to hit a new intraday high of $807 before settling in at an all-time high closing price of $806.85.
Not all was well on the day, however. Healthcare stocks were adversely impacted by the announcement of a reduction in the 2014 Medicare Advantage benchmark payment rates, with Humana (NYSE:HUM) crumbling more than 6% and United Healthcare (NYSE:UNH) and Aetna (NYSE:AET) declining nearly 1%.
Earnings notables for Wednesday include Sodastream (NASDAQ:SODA), Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) and Owens-Corning (NYSE:OC).
Three Up
- Sunpower (NASDAQ:SPWR): Up 16.9% ($1.94) to $13.39.
- Sealed Air (NYSE:SEE): Up 9% ($1.75) to $21.15.
- Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA): Up 6.1% ($2.24) to $39.28.
Three Down
- Hovnanian (NYSE:HOV): Down 4.3% (26 cents) to $5.76.
- Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC): Down 3.8% ($2.69) to $68.75.
- Allegheny Technologies (NYSE:ATI): Down 3.5% ($1.17) to $32.64.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
