The Dow Jones snapped its four-day win streak Tuesday following a say-little release of Federal Reserve minutes, as well as news from China about a worse-than-anticipated decline in exports. The Fed governors indicated they wanted to see better job growth before tinkering with easing, causing a quick spike that mostly withered away and produced middling results across the board.
The Dow closed fractionally lower at 15291.58, the S&P 500 managed to eke out a fifth straight day of gains, rising marginally to close at 1652.63. The Nasdaq separated itself a bit, though, rising almost half a percentage point to finish at 3520.76.
On the earnings front, Family Dollar (FDO) shares rallied more than 7% after the discount retailer announced Q3 revenues that beat Street estimates, though net income fell 3% compared to year-ago results. Sectormates Dollar General (DG, +5.8%) and Dollar Tree (DLTR, +2.8%) also pushed ahead solidly.
Electronics retailers didn’t fare nearly as well. RadioShack (RSH) lost more than 7%, Best Buy (BBY) fell from 52-week lows with a 4% drop, and H.H. Gregg (HGG) declined by more than 3%.
On the news front, shares of Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF) — the worst-performing first-half stock in the S&P 500 — gained more than 2% after announcing CEO Joseph Carrabba will step down sometime prior to the end of the year, and that Laurie Brlas, President of Global Operations, has resigned.
Not as fortunate was BlackBerry (BBRY), which dropped more than 3% on news it’s looking to cut more jobs, most of them in the middle management level. The news comes on the heels of a disappointing first-quarter report. BBRY is down more than 20% year-to-date.
Finally, Apple (AAPL) was found guilty of conspiring with book publishers to raise retail prices of e-books, setting up the possibility of future damages awards. AAPL stock was little affected, falling fractionally.
Three Up
- Molycorp (MCP): Up 16.1% (98 cents) to $7.08.
- Vivus (VVUS): Up 7% (88cents) to $13.54.
- Teradyne (TER): Up 5% (88 cents) to $18.36.
Three Down
- GTx (GTXI): Down 25.2% ($1.75cents) to $5.30.
- Nabors Industries (NBR): Down 6.3% ($1.01) to $14.99.
- Barnes & Noble (BKS): Down 6.3% ($1.17) to $17.44.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he is long AAPL and MSFT.
