After a holiday-abbreviated week, investors went back to their trading desks Monday and remembered … well, things still were very much in the air.
The fiscal cliff and Greece’s unsolved debt issues returned to the forefront — Congress and eurozone finance ministers are both ready to talk once again about their respective problems — and the result was a retreat from last week’s gains.
The S&P 500 fell 0.20% to 1,406.29 and the Dow Jones lost 0.33% to close at 12,967.37. The Nasdaq was able to keep its head above water, finishing up 0.33% to end at 2,976.78.
In an early look at how retailers fared over the holiday weekend, a National Retail Federation report indicated that the Black Friday weekend brought in a record $59.1 billion in sales — up 13% from last year; Cyber Monday results are pending.
However, the good news did not appear to have a positive effect on the sector, as Macy’s (NYSE:M), Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO), and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) led a broad retailing decline with 4% losses — reversing many of the gains from Friday’s boisterous half-session. However, eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) shares rallied just under 5% on news that its PayPal unit enjoyed a 193% year-over-year boost in mobile payment volume on Black Friday.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares spiked up over 8% after several analysts upgraded the stock, which now is trading at its highest level since July.
Shares of Knight Capital (NYSE:KCG) jumped more than 13% after reports surfaced it is weighing the sale of its market-making business, the unit whose trading snafu in August cost the company more than $400 million.
Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) shares gained over 2% amid some good press on the BlackBerry 10, which makes its debut on Jan. 30.
Finally, publisher McGraw-Hill (NYSE:MHP) rose fractionally after agreeing to sell its educational division for $2.5 billion to privately held Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) to more fully focus on its financial intelligence businesses.
Three Up
- Pandora (NYSE:P): Up 9.4% (74 cents) to $8.58.
- Best Buy (NYSE:BBY): Up 6.7% (78 cents) to $12.48.
- Deckers Outdoors (NASDAQ:DECK): Up 6.6% ($2.17) to $35.25.
Three Down
- Generac (NASDAQ:GNRC): Down 9.3% ($3.28) to $32.01.
- Nokia (NYSE:NOK): Down 5.6% (20 cents) to $3.36.
- Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): Down 3.5% (14 cents) to $3.81.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
