U.S. stock markets started the day off in the red on mixed economic news both on the home front and Europe, but a subsequent roller coaster ride finished with another broader up day — meaning yet another couple new highs for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.
The S&P 500 led the major indices by finishing 0.51% higher at 1658.78, the Dow Jones Industrial Average improved by 0.4% to 15275.69 and the Nasdaq managed to gain ground despite a big drop in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), climbing 0.26% to close at 3471.62.
In the U.S., the Producer Price Index dropped 0.7% in April — its biggest decline since February 2010 — and the Empire State manufacturing survey fell into negative territory for the first time since January. Meanwhile, in Europe, a 0.2% decline in first-quarter GDP spelled a recession in France, while Germany managed a 0.1% expansion in its GDP during the same period.
Earnings and corporate news managed to cut through the economic news, though.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) kicked off its annual developers conference amid word that it will unveil a paid subscription music-streaming service to compete with existing online music services like Spotify and Pandora (NYSE:P). Google shares reached an intraday record of $916 before settling in at a gain of just more than 3% to a closing record of $915.35 per share. Pandora was off 1%.
Apple went in the opposite direction, falling more than 3% after Gartner released figures showing Apple’s share for high-end mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2013 fell to 18.5% from 22.5% in the same period in 2012. (See full report here).
Macy’s (NYSE:M) reported top- and bottom-line gains for the quarter, and also rewarded shareholders by boosting its dividend by 25% and tacking on $1.5 billion in share buyback authorization. M shares finished ahead just more than 2%.
Farm equipment manufacturer Deere & Co (NYSE:DE) managed to post better-than-expected profits for the second quarter; however, shares still fell more than 4% after the company cut back its sales estimates for the remainder of the year. The news spilled over to other heavy machinery manufacturers like Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) and Joy Global (NYSE:JOY), which each tumbled just under 1%.
On the corporate news side, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose more than 4% in the run-up to the much-anticipated return of Arrested Development next week, continuing a 160% year-to-date run.
Earnings notables for Thursday include InvestorPlace Dependable Dividend Stock Walmart (NYSE:WMT), Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) and JCPenney (NYSE:JCP).
Three Up
- Sunpower (NASDAQ:SPWR): Up 8.5% ($1.62) to $20.75.
- MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE:WFR): Up 7.5% (44 cents) to $6.33.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY): Up 5.1% ($2.13) to $44.34.
Three Down
- Allied Nevada Gold (AMEX:ANV): Down 11.7% ($1.04) to $7.82.
- Rackspace (NYSE:RAX): Down 5.8% ($2.48) to $40.32.
- Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW): Down 5.2% ($1.22) to $22.18.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he is long AAPL.
