Fed Keeps ‘Em Guessing: Wednesday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | July 10, 2013 4:51 pm

[1]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[2] 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[3]) 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[4], +5.8%) and Dollar Tree (DLTR[5], +2.8%) also pushed ahead solidly.

Electronics retailers didn’t fare nearly as well. RadioShack (RSH[6]) lost more than 7%, Best Buy (BBY[7]) fell from 52-week lows with a 4% drop, and H.H. Gregg (HGG[8]) declined by more than 3%.

On the news front, shares of Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF[9]) — the worst-performing first-half stock[10] in the S&P 500 — gained more than 2% after announcing CEO Joseph Carrabba will step down[11] sometime prior to the end of the year, and that Laurie Brlas, President of Global Operations, has resigned.

Not as fortunate was BlackBerry (BBRY[12]), which dropped more than 3% on news it’s looking to cut more jobs[13], most of them in the middle management level. The news comes on the heels of a disappointing first-quarter report[14]. BBRY is down more than 20% year-to-date.

Finally, Apple (AAPL[15]) 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[16]): Up 16.1% (98 cents) to $7.08.
• Vivus (VVUS[17]): Up 7% (88cents) to $13.54.
• Teradyne (TER[18]): Up 5% (88 cents) to $18.36.

Three Down

• GTx (GTXI[19]): Down 25.2% ($1.75cents) to $5.30.
• Nabors Industries (NBR[20]): Down 6.3% ($1.01) to $14.99.
• Barnes & Noble (BKS[21]): 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.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/07/wednesdays-ip-market-recap-msft-bbry-bby-ibm-csco/

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