U.S. stocks surged to end the week as global investors embraced Thursday’s news from the European Central Bank (ECB) after an initial tepid reaction to the ECB’s added easing measures. Oil prices rose 1.9%, enough to spark another significant rally across the energy sector, helping drive the S&P 500 higher by 1.64% on the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.28% and 1.85%, respectively.
The S&P 500, the benchmark U.S. equity gauge, erased a weekly loss today on its way to a fourth weekly gain. Even with the recent bullishness in stocks and mostly positive economic data, traders see little chance the of the Federal Reserve boosting interesting rates when it meets next week and a better than 50% of the Fed doing so when it meets in June, according to Bloomberg.
Speaking of things moving higher, that is exactly what Devon Energy Corp (NYSE:DVN), Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ) and Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) did today, and those stocks did so in dramatic fashion.
Devon Energy Corp (DVN)
On the back of higher oil prices, Devon Energy, the Oklahoma-based oil and natural gas producer, climbed 11.4% today. Energy equities soared Friday after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said oil prices may have finally bottomed.
DVN and rival exploration and production companies were also bolstered by data showing that the U.S. rig count dropped by nine to 480 this week. Friday’s advance has shares of DVN up over 16% over the past month.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ)
Shares of Hertz Global Holdings surged nearly 12.3% on heavy volume after Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas told CNBC he sees 30% upside for HTZ. That even though shares of HTZ are up more than 55% in just the past month when factoring in Friday’s move.
Jonas cites changes in HTZ’s management structure and the company’s cost-cutting efforts as reasons for his bullish call on the stock.
Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. (ULTA)
Shares of Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance soared 17.3% on turnover that was more than quadruple the daily average after the company forecast first-quarter earnings of $1.25 to $1.30 per share, easily topping the $1.22 a share analysts were expecting.
ULTA reported a fourth-quarter profit of $1.69 per share on sales of $1.27 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.54 a shares on revenue of $1.23 billion. ULTA expects first-quarter sales of $1.02 billion to $1.03 billion, slightly ahead of the $1.01 billion Wall Street is expecting.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
