Good News on the Jobs Front — Thursday’s IP Market Recap

by Marc Bastow | April 25, 2013 4:58 pm

[1]A better-than-expected government report[2] showing unemployment claims dropped to 339,000 last week from 355,000 in the prior week provided a boost to stocks Thursday, which also were bid higher as investors digested another influx of earnings reports.

The Nasdaq led the way, up 0.62% to 3289.99, while the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to close at 1585.16 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average improved by 0.17% to finish the day at 14700.80.

Thinning the Dow’s gains was Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM[3]) which kicked off the day by announcing both an earnings beat and a dividend increase, but still ended as one of the index’s few losers. Revenues came in lower than expected[4], and the earnings increase was attributable to recent stock buybacks. XOM finished down around 1.5%.

3M (NYSE:MMM[5]) also took a beating, producing a Dow-worst 2.5% loss after missing earnings and revenue expectations and lowering its 2013 profit outlook.

Also going the wrong way was social gamemaker Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA[6]), which fell nearly 7% after the company issued a gloomy forecast[7].

On the other side of the ledger, Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW[8]) impressed the Street on the earnings front and was bid up 5%. UPS (NYSE:UPS[9]) also headed higher, by 2%, thanks to a nice bump in its top and bottom lines.

In other corporate news, Verizon (NYSE:VZ[10]) moved ahead nearly 3% after Reuters reported that the company hired advisers to look at a bid to buy Vodafone‘s (NASDAQ:VOD[11]) remaining stake in Verizon Wireless[12].

Finally, after the bell, Amazon was trading slightly higher after its Q1 earnings report. The company’s profits did improve by 22% year-over-year to $16.07 billion, but earnings plunged 37% to $82 million. EPS of 18 cents per share did clear the analyst community’s bar.

Earnings notables for Friday include Chevron (NYSE:CVX[13]), Goodyear Tire (NASDAQ:GT[14]), and Burger King (NYSE:BKW[15]).

Three Up

• Angie’s List (NASDAQ:ANGI[16]): Up 28.9% ($5.81) to $25.92.
• RR Donnelley (NASDAQ:RRD[17]): Up 15.2% ($1.87) to $12.65.
• Cadence Design (NASDAQ:CDNS[18]): Up 7.9% ($1.00) to $13.72.

Three Down

• Safeway (NYSE:SWY[19]): Down 13.9% ($3.94) to $24.32
• Citrix Systems (NASDAQ:CTXS[20]): Down 7% ($4.72) to $62.94
• Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM[21]): Down 5.4% ($3.59) to $62.44. (Read more here[22])

Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long XOM.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/04/thursdays-ip-market-recap-xom-ups-fdx-dow-znga-mmm/

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