Bernanke Boosts the Dow — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

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InvestorPlace Market RecapThe Dow moved past the difficulties in Cyprus, where banks will stay closed until next week, and roared to a new record Wednesday.

Investors focused on comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke who announced that the central bank will continue its existing policy of purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities and longer-term treasuries until employment conditions improve. (View complete Fed release here).

At the end of the day the markets rallied broadly, with the Nasdaq leading the charge with a gain of 0.78% to 3,254.19 and the S&P 500 following with a 0.67% gain to finish at 1,558.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average touched a record intra-day high of 14,546.82 before finishing up 0.39% at 14,511.73.

Only a handful of stocks in the Dow failed to gain ground on the day, including Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), which slid over 1.5% after announcing sales to dealers fell 13% over the past three months.

Shares of global transportation services company FedEx (NYSE:FDX) also bucked the markets’ trend, dropping nearly 7% after showing a 31% drop in Q3 earnings. The company also cut its outlook for the current quarter and full year, while adding that it might temporarily ground aircraft. Shares of rival UPS (NYSE:UPS, -1.23%) also fell on the news.

In other corporate and earnings news, BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares jumped over 6% after analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to “overweight” and bumped its price target to $22 per share.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) shares gained just almost 3% after the packaged food company announced improvements in top and bottom lines for the quarter. Sector mates Kellogg (NYSE:K) and Post (NYSE:POST) both gained over 1% on the news.

Graphics software developer and distributor Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) shares rose over 4% after it exceeded earnings estimates, although earnings fell 65% from last year’s quarter.

Three Up

  • First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR): Up 5.89% ($1.64) to $29.48
  • Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL): Up 5.85% ($2.02) to $36.53
  • Lennar (NYSE:LEN): Up 4.78% ($1.98) to $43.40

Three Down

  • Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS): Down 4.46% ($2.05) to $43.88
  • Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA): Down 3.75% (13 cents) to $3.34
  • Deere (NYSE:DE): Down 3.12% ($2.83) to $87.74

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the aforementioned securities.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2013/03/wednesdays-ip-market-recap-2-fdx-ups-ge-adbe-gis-m/.

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