Stock Market News for January 20, 2010 - Market News
U.S. stocks rebounded Tuesday, with healthcare shares leading the charge as speculation grew results of an election in Massachusetts would make the passage of the healthcare bill difficult. Technology shares also rallied ahead of bellwether IBM’s earnings.
If Democrats fail to win the seat of late Senator Edward Kennedy, Republicans would have the necessary 41 votes to stall Democratic proposals, including the healthcare bill. Those speculations made healthcare stocks look attractive yesterday.
Technology shares rallied after a Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS) analyst raised his rating on Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ:CIEN), a maker of telecommunications equipment, saying revenue at the firm would beat expectations.
Health care stocks surged 2%, led by gains in DJIA components Merck (NYSE:MRK), up 2.9%, and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), up 2.6%. Health insurers also found favor with investors, with Humana (NYSE:HUM) rising 7.1%, Aetna (NYSE:AET) up 4.2%, and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) up 4.1%.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 115.78 points, or 1.1%, to 10,725.43. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 14.20 points, or 1.3%, to 1,150.23 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 32.41, or 1.4%, to 2,320.40. It was the highest close for the Dow and the S&P 500 index in more than 15 months. The market’s measure of volatility, the CBOE Vix, dropped 1.8% to 17.58. Volume on the NYSE was a moderate 1.03 billion shares, with advancers ahead of losing issues by a 7-to-1 margin.
The dollar rose against a basket of currencies, up 0.7% to 77.51, as the euro continued to decline on Greece's debt issues. As risk appetites grew, US Treasuries moved lower, with the 10-year down 6/32, and its yield moving higher to 3.700%.
Of the thirty DJIA components, only four closed lower, with JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) retreating 0.9% as the company said it sees larger-than-expected credit card write offs. Kraft (NYSE:KFT) shares slipped 0.6% after the firm raised its bid for Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) to $19.6 billion, and the UK company approved the bid. Boeing (NYSE:BA) shares fell 0.3%; this morning's news revealed its $10 billion in orders for 71 planes from recently-bankrupt Japan Airlines was more than previously disclosed.
All ten S&P500 sectors closed higher in yesterday's trade with healthcare shares leading the charge. Gains were accorded to health care (+2.0%), basic materials (+1.8%), technology (+1.5%), telecommunications (+1.4%), utilities (+1.3%), financials (+1.2%), industrials (+1.1%), consumer services (+1.1%) oil and gas (+0.8%), and consumer goods (+0.7%).
Citigroup's (NYSE:C) results before the open failed upset investors’ calculations, as results of 33 cents were in line with Street estimates. Citigroup noted a drop in consumer losses during the quarter with fewer write offs.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) came out with its numbers after the close. The company reported fourth quarter results of $3.59 a share, ahead of consensus estimates of $3.47, and revenues of $27.2 billion exceeded estimates of $26.96 billion, helped by cost-cutting measures. Also, its projections of 2010 earnings of at least $11.00 per share was ahead of Street projections of $10.88.
The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.
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