The only suspense in Wednesday’s market — because, let’s face it, an up day is the default expectation — was whether stocks would gain back what they lost on Tuesday and squeeze out another two-and-a-half year high.
They did.
Stocks bounced back quite nicely on Wednesday — the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 62 points to 12,288, the Nasdaq added 21 points to 2826, and the S&P 500 rose 8 points to 1336..
And here’s one for you: with all of the economic and corporate news that came down today’s pike, is it completely ludicrous to say a maker of old-box PCs sparked the rally?
Folks, I give you Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) — yes, that’s right the company that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has supposedly blown away into irrelevance. Other than the notion that here is a company that is still able to bring in almost $16 billion in quarterly revenue.
Shares of the PC maker jumped more than 12% on Wednesday after the company’s earnings report last night that included two big beats on profit and revenue, as well as a better-than-expected top-line projection for the fiscal year ahead.
OK, so that might explain the strength of the Nasdaq today, but the whole market?
Think about it, though — if a company as “uncool” as Dell can put up a quarterly earnings outperformance to rival, well, Apple, doesn’t even the most extreme bear have to wonder, “Gee, how bad can it really be?”
But maybe Wednesday was just one of those days where the market outsiders had their day in the sun. After all, homebuilders were up — the SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE:XHB) exchange-traded fund rose 1.4% — as were retailers, following a slide this week.
Crude oil also was back up near $85 a barrel — enough to help oil services and equipment stocks, but far enough away from $90 to keep economic impact fears of higher prices at bay.
The same did not apply, however, for soft commodities like sugar and orange juice prices, which both tacked on about 3%.
The precious metal trade ended mostly unchanged in terms of gold and silver prices, while the 10-year bond note ticked slightly lower.
On a day like today, not everything can be Dell.
