U.S. markets continued to struggle for direction today, with little in the way of news to propel it forward. It was a tough day for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which lost more than 3% after a report indicated AAPL has reduced its component orders for their iPhone manufacturers in Asia as much as 10%, dragging semiconductor stocks lower as a result.
In addition, for the second consecutive day, China reported weak economic data, as their consumer price index was up only 1.3% from a year ago and the producer price index fell 5.9% for the 44th consecutive month of decline.
In the U.S., import prices fell 0.5% in October, more than expected, and export prices were off by 0.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 gained 0.2%, but the Nasdaq lost 0.2%. Sectors were mixed, with technology weak and utilities again doing very well.
Despite the lackluster day, earnings were still driving some company stocks much higher. D.R. Horton, Inc. (NYSE:DHI), Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX) and Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) were benefitting from solid earnings and or revenue, making them three of today’s best stocks.
D.R. Horton, Inc. (DHI)
DHI stock had a winning day, up 8% on triple its normal volume.
The homebuilder reported fourth-quarter earnings of 64 cents per share, ahead of Wall Street estimates by two cents. And DHI’s revenue of $3.17 billion was ahead of the street’s view of $3.05 billion
In addition, DHI’s home sales increased 27%, and land sales were also strong, contributing $39 million to the revenue total. Furthermore, DHI announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to 8 cents a share, payable Dec. 14, 2015 to shareholders as of Nov. 30, 2015.
Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (RAX)
Rack ’em up! RAX stock jumped more than 11% today after posting third-quarter earnings late on Monday, of 26 cents per share on $509 million in revenue. Both numbers easily beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 21 cents per share on $504 million. The revenue figure was up 10% from a year ago.
Rackspace is a cloud computing company that manages Web based IT services. Over the past few months, RAX has launched partnerships with large companies, such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
However, the stock until recently had been in a long downtrend, falling from $39 to $24. Perhaps things are turning around at RAX now.
Opko Health Inc. (OPK)
Miami-based biopharmaceutical Opko Health was surging today after announcing third-quarter earnings of 25 cents per share on revenue of $143 million. The analysts weren’t even close, forecasting a loss of a penny on revenue of $133 million.
In the third quarter a year ago, OPK’s revenue was only $19.8 million, but affiliations with Pfizer (PFE) and some acquisitions made in the past year have boosted the company’s revenue substantially.
OPK stock fell from $18 in July, to an October low near $8, but the stock has been climbing back since then. OPK stock gained more than 7% on the day.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
