Closing Bell: Wall Street Rebounds on Modest Optimism About Shutdown

DailyFinance Staff
Updated
Trading On The Floor Of The NYSE As S&P 500 Falls Most In A Month On Federal Shutdown
Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stocks rose Friday on Wall Street, recovering from recent losses even as investors remained focused on the ongoing budget stalemate in Washington, where a partial shutdown of the federal government has weighed on markets all week. It appears that investors foresee the legislative bickering over the budget and debt limit coming to an end sooner rather than later, despite the rhetoric from Capitol Hill.

The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) rose 76. points, or 5 percent, to 15,073, the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) gained 12 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,690 and the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC) advanced 33 points, or 0.9 percent, to 3,808.

Washington appears no closer to resolving the government shutdown or the looming deadline later this month to increase the government's borrowing limit so it can continue to pay its bills. On Friday, Republicans in the House of Representatives said they would continue to pass small spending bills that would fund select parts of the government, such as Head Start, but that tactic has inspired no interest from Democrats in the Senate.

The political noise out of Washington has come to dominate nearly all conversations on Wall Street. Under normal circumstances, traders would have the government's monthly jobs report to parse through on the first Friday of the month. But the shutdown has forced the Labor Department to postpone the release of September's data for at least the foreseeable future.

The S&P's biggest loser was struggling retailer J.C. Penney (JCP), which fell to a 31-year low earlier in the day, hitting $7.82 a share. The stock ended Friday's session down 6.7 percent at $7.85 a share.

In commodities trading, U.S. benchmark crude for November delivery rose 30 cents to $103.61 a barrel, while gold lost $7.60 to close the week at $1,309.80 an ounce.

%VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks%In corporate news, Twitter Inc. gave potential investors their first glance at its financials Thursday when it publicly filed documents for an initial public offering. The information showed that revenue at the social networking company almost tripled in 2012, though it posted a loss in the first half of 2013.

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, a specialty consumer electronics company that went bankrupt in 2007, saw its most active day of trading in more than six years Friday, even though it has nothing to do with the social media site. The stock, which trades over the counter, closed Thursday at a price of less than a penny a share, and Friday hit a high of 15 cents a share, before paring gains to trade at 5 cents, a 669 percent rise. More than 11.7 million shares had traded by midday. Tweeter trades over the counter, under the "TWTRQ" symbol, while Twitter in its IPO proposed using "TWTR."

Shares of electric car maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) made a partial recovery Friday after two days of big declines following news of a fire in one of its $70,000 Model S cars. Tesla's stock, which has risen 400 percent so far this year, advanced 4.4 percent to $180.95. The carmaker's shares lost more than 10 percent of their value after news of the fire broke Wednesday.

More Stocks in the News:

  • Shares of sandwich maker Potbelly (PBPB) more than doubled in their Nasdaq trading debut Friday, soaring soared 123.5 percent to $31.29. The company priced its initial public offering of 7.5 million shares at $14 a share, above the projected range of $12 to $13 each.

  • Pharmacyclics (PCYC) rose 2.9 percent to $139.80 after a Wells Fargo (WFC) analyst said he expects the biotechnology company's potential drug, ibrutinib, to become one of the most common primary treatments for blood cancer and generate billions of dollars in annual sales.

  • Taser (TASR) fell after the company lowered prices for some of its Axon police cameras and Evidence.com service. Shares of Taser, best known for its stun guns, fell 5.8 percent to $14.04.

  • Shares of Constellation Brands (STZ) hit a 52-week high, continuing to gain after the wine, beer and liquor company reported higher quarterly results that topped expectations. Shares ended Friday trading up 3 percent to $61.96.

  • Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment (CHMI) fell 8.5 percent to $18.30 in its trading debut Friday after the company raised $130 million in its initial public offering. The mortgage investment company priced its IPO at $20 a share.

  • Railroad company CSX (CSX) fell 0.5 percent to $25.55 after an analyst cut his rating on the stock, uncertainty over demand for coal.

What to Watch Monday:

  • Polling firm Gallup releases its measure of U.S. consumer spending for September at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

  • The Federal Reserve releases consumer credit data for August at 3 p.m.

Note: Many scheduled government reports have been postponed indefinitely because of the partial government shutdown.

-Compiled from staff and wire reports.

Advertisement