U.S. markets got back on track today, celebrating a weaker dollar and some stabilization in the bond market.
The weekly jobless claims report was 264,000, slightly less than last week and below expectations for a small increase. The Producer Price Index was 0.4% lower, with the core figure of 0.2% was below expectations for a slight gain.
All of these reports continue to affirm for traders that the Federal Reserve will not be raising rates any time soon.
With the good news in hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were 1.1% higher and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.4%. All sectors moved higher today, with technology and healthcare showing particularly large gains.
Earnings, analysts and merger rumors continue to push stocks to the upside. That was all fodder for Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), Facebook Inc (NYSE:FB) and NetEase, Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:NTES), making them three of today’s best stocks.
Avon Products, Inc. (AVP)
Avon was calling today — only this time it was calling an unknown somebody a liar. The company insisted today that a purported takeover bid at $18.75 per share was all an elaborate hoax.
An entity calling itself PTG Capital Partners Ltd. said in a securities filing that it made the bid, but AVP said no such offer was made and it couldn’t verify that PTG was a real company.
The filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was filled with errors and named a non-existent law firm, but AVP stock initially bolted up more than 20% on the news anyway.
The SEC is reviewing the matter and AVP stock pulled back throughout the day, closing 6% higher at just over $7. .
Facebook Inc (FB)
FB stock was up 3.7% as analysts made positive comments about Facebook’s traffic and mobile ad growth.
JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) analyst Dough Anmuth said that FB core services accounted for 24% of all smartphone activity in the U.S., an increase of 2% from March. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) also made favorable comments.
NetEase, Inc (ADR) (NTES)
NTES stock was 8.3% higher on heavy volume after announcing first-quarter earnings of 10.81 yuan a share ($1.74), well ahead of analysts’ views of 8.69 yuan ($1.40) a share. Revenue of 3.88 billion yuan ($626.7 million) was 54% higher than a year ago, ahead of estimates for 3.2 billion yuan ($514.9 million).
NTES is a Chinese company that sells online games and operates Blizzard’s Battle.net service. NTES stock has been explosively hot lately, up 50% since March.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
