| Corporate Profits Ingnite a 1.5% Rally On Wall Street |
| Jul-13-2012 |
| Keywords: corporate profits, rally, wall street, jp morgan chase, wells fargo, china |
Stronger the expected quarterly profit reports rekindled Investor enthusiasm after six straight session declines on the Dow.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average today soared 204-points. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 42-points. The S&P 500 finished with a 22-point gain.
Today's rally exactly what the doctor ordered, erasing all of the week's gains on the Dow and S&P 500, both indexes finishing the week fractionally higher. The damage too deep however on the Nasdaq Composite, which finished the week down about 1%.
The shares of JP Morgan Chase leading advancers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Chase's stock price 6% on the day. The bank's nearly $4.5 billion London trading loss barely made a dent in profits that totaled $5 billion.
Wells Fargo shares gained more than 3% after posting earnings of 82-cents a share, narrowly topping estimates with a 17% jump in second-quarter earnings amid soaring mortgage banking profits.
Those results welcomed news for investors who've muddled through a week in which the market's been bogged down by concerns over a slowing global economy and apprehension about corporate profits.
Traders today reacted to news that China's economy in the 2nd quarter expanded at an annual rate of 7.6%. While that marketed the 6th straight quarterly decline in economic activity in the world's No. 2 economy, investors were relieved that the slowdown wasn't more severe.
U.S. producer prices rose 0.1% in June, according to the Labor Department, surprising economists who were expecting a 0.5% decline. Excluding the food and energy components, prices were up 0.2% , in line with expectations.
A preliminary reading on consumer sentiment by Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan for the month of July unexpectedly declined to 72, the lowest reading since December of last year.
Today's risk-on trading pressured both the dollar and bond prices. The yield on the government's benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to just under 1.5%.
Dollar weakness and relief over Chinese economic data is provided a lift to commodities prices. Gold prices finished with a 1.7% gain, closing at $1,592 an ounce. Crude oil prices gained just over a dollar, setting at $87.10 a barrel. |
|
|
Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 9:00 AM Email to a friend |
| < Back to Today's Issues |
|
 |
|
|
|
