The good vibes on Wall Street were back again Thursday, extending its rally on continued improvement in the economy evidenced by falling initial jobless claims following a better-than-expected jobs report the day before.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.23% to yet another all-time high of 14329.49, while the S&P 500 moved up 0.18% to 1544.26, getting within 2% of its October 2007 high point. However, Thursday’s biggest gainer was the Nasdaq, which finished higher by 0.3% to 3232.09.
One of the biggest moves of the day came from truck manufacturer Navistar (NYSE:NAV), which roared ahead more than 27% after the company reported a much better loss than expected for the fiscal first quarter. The company lost $1.42 per share — better than the expected $1.76 and NAV’s $2.06 loss in the year-ago period. Navistar also announced that COO Troy Clarke will move into the CEO chair.
Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) announced plans to spin off Time Inc. — its magazine business that includes Sports Illustrated and People — into a separate publicly traded company after unsuccessful discussions with Meredith Corp. (NYSE:MDP) to sell the assets. TWX shares rose more than 2% on the day while Meredith shares dipped more than 6%.
Consumer products company Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) announced a 2-for-1 stock split and a 10% dividend increase, which comes amid a nearly 25% climb in the past year.
Lastly, JCPenney (NYSE:JCP) bounced back a little from a multi-week dive, gaining 2% after the company announced it had recently laid off 2,200 employees.
Three Up
- Smithfield Foods (NYSE:SFD): Up 10.7% ($2.38) to $24.68.
- RadioShack (NYSE:RSH): Up 9% (28 cents) to $3.41.
- Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE:GDP): Up 8% ($1.07 cents) to $14.42.
Three Down
- MGIC Investment (NYSE:MTG): Down 12.6% (70 cents) to $4.92.
- PetSmart (NASDAQ:PETM): Down 6.6% ($4.37) to $62.18.
- Michael Kors (NYSE:KORS): Down 4.9% ($2.98) to $58.21.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long TWX.
