U.S. markets recovered from their recent doldrums today to finish near session highs, as another group of blue-chip companies, including McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD), Coach Inc (NYSE:COH) and Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL), headed higher.
Yet another positive for the markets was the Labor Department report that only 265,000 people filed for jobless claims in the week ending Jan. 24, lower than the 300,000 expected, and the lowest total since the year 2000.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1.31%, ending a two day decline, while the S&P 500 was 0.96% higher, and the Nasdaq rose 0.98%.
Here’s a look at today’s best stocks.
McDonald’s Corporation (MCD)
MCD stock has had a few rough months, but stormed 5% higher after it was announced on Wednesday that CEO Don Thompson will be stepping down, and replaced by their chief brand officer, Steve Easterbrook. The replacement comes just a week after MCD reported a 21% drop in fourth-quarter earnings and a 4%-plus drop in U.S. store traffic. Competition among other fast-casual chains has hurt MCD’s bottom line.
Coach Inc (COH)
COH stock also had a great day, surging more than 6% higher after reporting second-quarter fiscal 2015 earnings of 72 cents per share, which beat the estimates of 65 cents. However, this was 32% lower than the year ago quarter, and net sales fell 14.1% year over year. COH too had a management shake-up, promoting Andre Cohen to president of its North American division (replacing Francine Della Badia) while shuffling a few other lower-level executives as well.
Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL)
Over the last six weeks, CL stock has really lagged the market, but today was a different story. CL stock was up 6% after posting fourth-quarter earnings of 76 cents per share, a penny ahead of estimates, and up 1% year-over-year. However, global sales of $4.2 billion were down 3% from the $4.2 billion of a year ago.
Colgate-Palmolive said that higher volumes and better pricing are showing positive results, and that gross profit margins will increase by 50 to 100 basis points in 2015. Lower oil prices and other commodities are helping to increase the company’s bottom line. CL stock had dropped about 8% since early December, prior to today’s strong showing.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
