| Bulls Remain In Control On Wall Street |
| Jul-19-2012 |
| Keywords: stocks higher, tech, earnings, ibm, ebay, jobless claims, existing home sales |
Technology stocks help drive gains on Wall Street for a third straight session.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 35 points, the Nasdaq Composite rose 23 points, and the S&P 500 gained 4 points.
Technology bellwethers IBM and eBay helped to offset a number of disappointing economic reports.
New claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 386,000 from an upwardly revised 352,000 the week prior. Claims were expected to rise to 365,000, but instead surged 34,000.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's gauge of manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region did improve last month, but at a significantly weaker than expected pace. Manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region now in contraction for three straight months.
U.S. existing home sales unexpected fell 5.4% in June to an annual rate of 4.37 million, the slowest pace in 8 months, according to the National Association of Realtors.
IBM was by far the best performer on the Dow today, gaining 3.77% after raising its full-year guidance.
Fellow Dow components Verizon Communications and American Express, and Bank of America struggled. Bank of America finished sharply lower, down more than 3.5% on the day.
Morgan Stanley fell -5.29% after posting disappointing quarterly results.
Wall Street was also confronted with worrisome news out of embattled Spain. The country saw tepid demand, and was faced to pay dramatically higher yields, at an auction of two-year, five-year and seven-year bonds, according to data from the Wall Street Journal.
But the impact of that news lessened somewhat after the German parliament approved Spain's $122 billion bank bailout.
Oil prices climbed for the seventh day in a row. The benchmark contract jumped $2.79, settling at $92.66 a barrel. Today's close is the first time crude's ended trading above $92 a barrel since the end of May. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 10:00 AM Email to a friend |
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