With corporate earnings that continue to exceed Wall Street estimates, better economic news from the United States and hope for a resolution to the debt crisis in Greece, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by about 1% to around 12,700 in midday trading Thursday. In this earnings season, 80% of companies have reported better-than-expected numbers.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) continued to rebound from its earnings report earlier this week of a 90 cent-per-share loss by surging more than 2.2%, more than 22 cents, to over $10.10. At this price level, there is a feeling that Bank of America is too good of a buy to pass up. However, mortgage woes from the Countrywide Credit acquisition continue to hold Bank of America down, and it still is the poorest-performing stock on the Dow this year.
JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) also was up big, continuing its rise by more than 2.1%, about 90 cents, to over $41.80. Since reporting robust earnings with better-than-expected revenues, JP Morgan has risen by more than 3.3% this week.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) also was up by more than 2%, with a pickup of more than 80 cents, to over $37.20. Better economic news supplied the lift for Home Depot, which is trading above its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages with a relative strength index of 61. A relative strength index of 70 is when a stock is considered overbought.
Better economic news had Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) higher by about 3.3% to over $44.56, picking up more than $1.30 per share in morning action. Walt Disney has a relative strength index of over 60 and is above its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages. The stock is up more than 20% for the year.
Takeover activity in the energy sector along with hopes for global growth had Chevron Oil (NYSE:CVX) over $109, more than $1.90 higher, about a 1.8% jump. Chevron has a relative strength index rating of almost 70. Recent mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs to enhance shareholder value by Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has Chevron up more than 7% for the month.
Despite posting earnings that beat expectations after the closing bell yesterday, negative sentiment on the tech sector had Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) down more than 0.5% to under $22.90, losing more than 12 cents a share. Intel is trading above its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages and is up almost 8% for the month.
Johnathan Yates did not own any of the aforementioned stocks as of this writing.
