Wall Street ended the week on an upbeat note after the Bank of Japan announced it will initiate negative interest rates for the first time ever, and crude oil prices found further stability above $33.50.
The BOJ announcement was completely unexpected, but delighted traders.
Also boosting stocks was the January Chicago PMI reading of 55.6, far above the expectations for a reading of 45 and trouncing last months’ reading of 42.9.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up nearly 400 points, finished close to its high for the day, up 2.5%, as was the S&P 500. The Nasdaq rose 2.4%. Every sector was showing green today, with telecommunications and industrials leading the market.
Solid earnings continue to support many individual stocks. Today it was Visa Inc (NYSE:V), Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE) and Seagate Technology PLC‘s (NASDAQ:STX) turn to shine, and are thus three of today’s best stocks. Here’s the low down:
Visa Inc (V)
Visa and rival Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) both rocketed ahead today on good earnings reports. Visa reported first-quarter 2016 earnings of 69 cents a share on revenue of $3.6 billion. The results beat analysts’ estimates by a penny, while coming in just below revenue estimates for $3.62 billion.
In addition, Visa announced they have created a service called Visa Commerce Network, which gives separate merchants the ability to connect transactions. Some of the newly signed up companies include Dunkin Brands Group Inc (NASDAQ:DNKN), Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK) and Uber International C.V.
MasterCard also beat the street on EPS, albeit by 10 cents, and was just below estimates on revenue. V stock finished up by 7%, while MA stock was ahead by 6%.
Sony Corp (ADR) (SNE )
SNE stock was an 18% winner today after reporting third-quarter earnings of 78 cents a share on revenue of $21.5 billion. Both numbers were ahead of analysts’ forecasts.
Sony said its movie, games and music divisions were particularly strong this quarter, even while the electronics division was struggling.
SNE shareholders have seen their stock drop from $29 to $21 recently, so today’s earnings report was a welcome relief. The stock touched its 50-day moving average for the first time since mid-November.
Seagate Technology PLC (STX)
Another stock which has been recently battered is Seagate, falling from $48 in October to a recent low near $26. But today, STX stock climbed more than 8% after reporting second-quarter earnings of 82 cents, well ahead of the 71 cent estimate of the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Revenue of $2,986 million also surpassed the analysts’ view of $2,956 million. Seagate is no longer just a maker of disk drives. What drives their profits nowadays is their cloud-based operation.
With its recent decline, Seagate stock also sports a dividend of just under 9%.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
