Stocks opened higher on Monday and remained mostly higher throughout the day, with the Street feeling positive about upcoming consumer holiday purchases, due to recent lower gasoline prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.04%, while the S&P 500 hit another record high, up 0.29%. The Nasdaq was the strongest of the three indices on the day, finishing higher by 0.89%. This has been the trend in recent weeks.
Retail stocks were again impressive, including J C Penney Company Inc (JCP), which along with restaurant chain Denny’s Corporation (DENN) and healthcare giant HealthSouth Corp (HLS) were among the leading stocks to start the holiday shortened week.
J C Penney Company Inc (JCP)
JCPenney was one of several retailers to announce they will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, getting a head start on Black Friday sales. That news boosted JCP stock by well more than 6%. The struggling company recently announced that Marvin Ellison, the Executive Vice President of Stores for Home Depot (HD), will become JCP’s next CEO as of August 2015. Ellison has been given a lot of credit for turning Home Depot around and boosting the shares of Home Depot. Less than three years ago, the beleaguered JCP stock sold for over $42. JCPenney shares closed at $7.78 today.
Denny’s Corporation (DENN)
DENN gapped up more than 8% today, as Janney analysts upgraded the stock of restaurant chain Denny’s from “neutral” to “buy” today, citing overall improvement in the family dining sector, as well as recent restaurant remodeling by Denny’s. DENN stock also was upgraded from “hold” to “buy” by TheStreet.com last month.
DENN stock has been on a tear recently and is up some 60% since July.
HealthSouth Corp (HLS)
HLS stock rose more than 5% amid word that it was buying the owner of Encompass Home Health for approximately $750 million. By doing so, HealthSouth expands its own home health business with another 140 locations across 13 states. HealthSouth also acknowledged that further healthcare acquisitions may be likely in the future.
HLS stock has almost doubled over the past two years, but recently has been trending sideways. HLS recently was recommended as a healthy blue-chip stock with a growing dividend.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
