Wall Street Bristles at Big Ben: Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | June 19, 2013 4:45 pm

[1]Investors mostly held their collective breath throughout Wednesday waiting for a highly anticipated Federal Reserve statement and news conference.

The statement issued at 2 p.m. said the Federal Reserve would keep buying $85 billion in bonds per month, with no indication it might “taper” the program, and stocks started up in response. However, at his news conference just after 2:30 p.m., Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated the Fed could start to scale back[2] the program by mid-2014 if economic predictions held up, sending the markets the other direction.

After an accelerated late-day selloff, the S&P 500 lost 1.39% to close at 1628.93, with all 10 sectors lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.35% to end at 15112.19, while the Nasdaq dropped 1.12% to 3443.20.

In an otherwise slow corporate news day, Photoshop and Acrobat software maker Adobe (ADBE[3]) rose more than 5% after reporting higher-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit, and increased demand for Creative Cloud, the subscription-based version of its software package.

FedEx (FDX[4]) shares rose over 1% after it posted a larger-than-expected quarterly profit as its ground shipment business did well[5], and the company also announced it will lay off 3,600 employees[6] in a cost-cutting move.

Japan’s Softbank (SFTBY[7]) jumped over a hurdle in its attempt to buy wireless provider Sprint (S[8]) after rival bidder Dish Network (DISH[9]) declined to make a new offer to counter Softbank’s recently re-upped bid. Sprint shares fell by more than 4% while DISH moved ahead fractionally.

Finally, Men’s Wearhouse (MW[10]) fired co-founder and executive chairman George Zimmer — known as the “I guarantee it” spokesperson for the clothing retailer. MW was little moved, dropping just more than 1%.

Three Up

• Ruckus (RKUS[11]): Up 5.5% (63 cents) to $12.04.
• Linn Energy (LINE[12]): Up 4.4% ($1.39) to $32.98.
• Vivus (VVUS[13]): Up 3.1% (43 cents) to $14.19. (Read more here.[14])

Three Down

• Tetra Tech (TTEK[15]): Down 13.6% ($3.64) to $23.09.
• Blackberry (BBRY[16]): Down 4.5% (66 cents) to $14.15.
• Herbalife (HLF[17]): Down 3.2% ($1.60) to $47.97.

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/06/bernanke-dampens-the-mood-wednesdays-ip-market-recap-adbe-s-fdx-mw-s-dish/

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