Financials were leading the Dow Jones Average up in double digits by more than 75 points higher, about a 0.6% gain, taking it over 12,700 in early trading Thursday.
Strong from the opening bell was JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), which surged more than 2% to around $41.40, up more than 80 cents. A report from Moody’s projected that changes in debit cards from the Federal Reserve, which will allow higher rates to be charged, would earn banks additional billions. Financials have been the weakest-performing sector of the market for this year. JP Morgan was down both Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and is down about 2.5% for the year.
Also up over 1% early on was Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), posting gains of about 15 cents to take it around $10.90. As a major card issuer, Bank of America also will gain from debit card changes. For the year, Bank of America is down about 18.59%. It closed down more than 2% yesterday.
Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) was up about 2%, gaining more than $2 to take it over $112 in morning action. Increases in transportation activities are leading Caterpillar higher. The positive news for economic growth — the Dow Jones Transportation Average closed yesterday at a new high of 5,566.07 — means more demand for its products. At around $112, Caterpillar is less than 4% beneath its high for the year. The relative strength index for Caterpillar is 69.36, with 70 the benchmark for a stock considered to be overbought.
Down by about 2% was Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), losing about 40 cents to around $21.40. Pfizer has been up strong the last three trading days on product testing news. Pfizer is up almost 50% for the year and trading more than 9% above its 200 day moving average.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) was off more than 1%, about $1.50, to around $176.30. “Big Blue” is up more than 3.5% for the last week and more than 40% for the year. The company is trading higher than its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages, and IBM is at its year high. The relative strength index for IBM is 72.44.
Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) was down about 0.24%, less than 10 cents, to around $37.40. Verizon is trading above its 20-, 50- and 200-day moving averages. The company is about 1.6% below its high for the year. The relative strength index for Verizon is 68.08.
As of this writing, Johnathan Yates did not own any of the aforementioned stocks.
