Bernanke Boosts the Dow — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | March 20, 2013 4:41 pm

[1]The 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[2]).

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[3]), which slid over 1.5% after announcing sales to dealers fell 13% over the past three months[4].

Shares of global transportation services company FedEx (NYSE:FDX[5]) also bucked the markets’ trend[6], 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[7], -1.23%) also fell on the news.

In other corporate and earnings news, BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY[8]) 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[9]) 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[10]) and Post (NYSE:POST[11]) both gained over 1% on the news.

Graphics software developer and distributor Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE[12]) shares rose over 4% after it exceeded earnings estimates, although earnings fell 65% from last year’s quarter.

Three Up

• First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR[13]): Up 5.89% ($1.64) to $29.48
• Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL[14]): Up 5.85% ($2.02) to $36.53
• Lennar (NYSE:LEN[15]): Up 4.78% ($1.98) to $43.40

Three Down

• Cintas (NASDAQ:CTAS[16]): Down 4.46% ($2.05) to $43.88
• Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA[17]): Down 3.75% (13 cents) to $3.34
• Deere (NYSE:DE[18]): 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.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/03/wednesdays-ip-market-recap-2-fdx-ups-ge-adbe-gis-m/

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