After Market: Dow and S&P 500 Top Big Milestones; Boeing's a Big Winner
The Dow Jones industrial average passed a major milestone Monday, topping the 16,000 level for the first time. It's the second big round number to fall this year. The Dow topped 15,000 back in May. You have to go back to 2007 to find the last year the index etched a new thousand-mark.
Admittedly, many market pros say the Dow isn't the most important index to follow because it's made up of just 30 blue chip stocks. So let's look at the S&P 500: Same story there. It rose to an intra-day record, topping the 1,800 mark for the first time.
But the major averages could not hold on to those midday gains, partly due to some cautious comments from the influential investor Carl Icahn. The Dow (^DJI) ended the day just 14 points higher at 15,976, the S&P 500 (^GPSC) fell 6 to 1,792, and the Nasdaq (^IXIC) slid 37 points to 3,949.
The Nasdaq is still 21 percent below its all-time high, set back in the Internet bubble days of early 2000.
Some of the big names on the Nasdaq gave back some of their big gains this year. Tesla Motors (TSLA) slid 10 percent and Twitter (TWTR) lost 6 percent. Apple (AAPL) fell 1 percent.
As for some of those 30 stocks on the Dow: Boeing (BA) was the big winner. It gained 2 percent after receiving more than $100 billion in orders for new planes at the Dubai Air Show. And that lifted the shares of several makers of key components. Precision Castparts (PCP) and Spirit Aerosystems (SPR) both rose more than 2 percent. B/E Aerospace (BEAV) gained 1 percent.
Another Dow stock, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), rose 1.5 percent after agreeing to pay $4.5 billion to settle claims that it sold faulty mortgage securities.
And Microsoft (MSFT) lost nearly 2 percent after the stock was downgraded by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Also moving on brokerage comments: SuperValue (SVU) down 8 percent after a Goldman Sachs downgrade, but Goldman raised its rating on Vitamin Shoppe (VSI), which added 2 percent.
Finally, JinkoSolar (JKS) soared 13 percent. The maker of components for solar power systems posted strong earnings and issued an upbeat outlook. The stock is up an astounding 900 percent from a year ago.
What to Watch Tuesday:
The Department of Labor releases employment costs for the third quarter at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
These major companies are due to report quarterly corporate earnings before markets open in New York:
-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.
