U.S. markets shook off the deadly terrorist attack in France over the weekend, as well as another weak manufacturing reading this morning, to push stock prices higher Monday on the back of stronger energy prices.
Crude oil broke its three-day losing streak to gain more than 3% as investors speculated over how the ISIS attack in Paris could lead to a reduction in Saudi oil output. Gold and silver prices were moderately higher as well.
Meanwhile, the Empire State Manufacturing Index came in at -10.74, still an improvement from October’s -11.36, but a number that clearly represents contraction in manufacturing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.4%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.5% and the Nasdaq was 1.2% higher. Leading the charge higher were Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), JD.com Inc(ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX). Here are the highlights for Monday’s moves.
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)
Netflix stock was up sharply today despite an analyst price cut, amid other analysts’ expectations that NFLX will boost earnings per share by nearly 50% in 2016.
Topeka Capital Markets was the fly in the ointment, cutting its price target on NFLX stock from $161 to $142, while still maintaining a “buy” rating.
In addition, NFLX stock was boosted by positive subscriber numbers in Australia. Some 2.5 million Australians are currently streaming from Netflix Australia, up from only 1 million according to previous statistics.
NFLX stock finished the day up by more than 7%. he stock has more than doubled thus far in 2015.
JD. com Inc (ADR) (JD)
China based JD.com stock soared nearly 8% today after the e-commerce company posted third quarter earnings of 3 cents per share.
Although revenue was up 52% year-over-year at RMB 44.1 billion, analysts were expecting revenue of 44.29 billion. But JD’s fourth-quarter revenue guidance of RMB 51 billion to RMB 52.5 billion was nicely ahead of the analyst expectations for RMB 50.61 billion. That cinched the deal.
JD stock has had mixed results this year, rallying well more than 60% into June, but then dropping 40% by early September before hitting its current uptrend.
Chevron Corporation (CVX)
CVX was one of a number of oil stocks that had a solid day following a very poor performance in the prior week. The catalyst for the rally in crude oil was the news of the terrorist attacks in Paris.
CVX finished the day up 4%.
In addition, The Wall Street Journal recently featured Chevron in an article discussing stocks whose dividend yields have survived the major decline in oil prices. Even with the price gain today, the dividend on CVX stock still stands at a historically strong yield of 4.7%.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
