Choppier Road to the Record Books — Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | May 15, 2013 4:50 pm

InvestorPlace Market Recap[1]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[2]), 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[3]) kicked off its annual developers conference amid word that it will unveil a paid subscription music-streaming service[4] to compete with existing online music services like Spotify and Pandora (NYSE:P[5]). 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%[6] in the same period in 2012. (See full report here[7]).

Macy’s (NYSE:M[8]) 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[9]) 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[10]) and Joy Global (NYSE:JOY[11]), which each tumbled just under 1%.

On the corporate news side, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX[12]) 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[13] Walmart (NYSE:WMT[14]), Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS[15]) and JCPenney (NYSE:JCP[16]).

Three Up

Three Down

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he is long AAPL.

Endnotes:

  1. [Image]: https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IPMarketRecap.gif
  2. AAPL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AAPL
  3. GOOG: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=GOOG
  4. a paid subscription music-streaming service: https://investorplace.com/2013/05/get-ready-for-googles-spotify-competitor/
  5. P: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=P
  6. fell to 18.5% from 22.5%: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2482816
  7. here: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2482816
  8. M: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=M
  9. DE: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=DE
  10. CAT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=CAT
  11. JOY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=JOY
  12. NFLX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=NFLX
  13. Dependable Dividend Stock: https://investorplace.com/dividend-paying-stocks/
  14. WMT: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=WMT
  15. KSS: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=KSS
  16. JCP: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=JCP
  17. SPWR: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SPWR
  18. WFR: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=WFR
  19. BMY: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=BMY
  20. ANV: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=ANV
  21. RAX: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=RAX
  22. SLW: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=SLW

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/05/wednesdays-ip-market-recap-aapl-goog-de-cat-m/