Following Friday’s aggressive rally that sent the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to new highs, investors jumped back into the markets again on Monday with a bit less temerity this time around.
The S&P 500 closed up 0.19% to mark another new all-time high at 1617.50, while the Nasdaq rose 0.42% to end at 3392.97. The Dow once again flirted with a close above 15000 before ending off fractionally at 14968.89.
Leading the charge in the Nasdaq and S&P was Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) which improved by about 3% after Barclays revised its target on the company from $465 to $525. Barron’s also honored Apple’s operating performance by making it the magazine’s Best Performing Company for 2013.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) raced ahead over 5% to lead the Dow after reaching a $1.6 billion legal settlement with MBIA (NYSE:MBI) over problems in the quality of underlying loans held by MBIA during the housing crises. MBI shares soared more than 45% on the news.
The banking sector found its legs on the BAC news, as Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS, +2.3%), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM, +1.3%) and Citigroup (NYSE:C, +1%) all moved ahead.
Three-dimensional print-to-content company 3D Printing (NYSE:DDD) headed 8% higher after Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) announced it would begin selling the Cube 3D printer online. Staples finished up 2%.
Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) disappointed analysts and investors with a big drop in its second-quarter earnings, and the stock sank more than 3%, making it the biggest-percentage decliner on the S&P 500.
Finally, BMC Software (NASDAQ:BMC) agreed to be acquired by a private group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital for about $6.9 billion. BMC shares remained unchanged, however.
Earnings notables for Tuesday include Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM).
Three Up
- James River Coal (NASDAQ:JRCC): Up 18.4% (36 cents) to $2.32.
- Qihoo 360 (NYSE:QIHU): Up 8.4% ($2.90) to $37.30.
- Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF): Up 5.5% ($1.10) to $21.01.
Three Down
- Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): Down 6.5% (38 cents) to $5.46. (Read more here)
- Linn Energy (NASDAQ:LINE): Down 5.2% ($1.97) to $35.75.
- Entergy (NYSE:ETR): Down 2.8% ($1.97) to $69.13.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he is long AAPL.
