The Dow Can't Stop Flirting With 13,000
The teasing continues on Wall Street, as stocks continue to get mixed news that pushes the market up and down. Weak economic data showing a big drop in factory orders and continuing weakness in housing prices kept stocks in check, but the market was able to post a modest gain based on better-than-expected consumer confidence. Just before 11 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrials (INDEX: ^DJI) was up 22 points to 13,003.
Among Dow stocks, Intel (NAS: INTC) and Microsoft (NAS: MSFT) were among the biggest gainers, both climbing more than 1%. Yesterday, Intel announced at the Mobile World Congress that three new smartphones would use microprocessors produced by the chip giant, giving further fuel to Intel's move to diversify its strength beyond PCs toward the red-hot mobile device market.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is part of a group of companies that has complained to antitrust officials in the European Union about Google and its Google+ social network. The move is just the latest in a series of small skirmishes between the two tech giants.
Finally, American Express (NYS: AXP) was down 0.6%. Although it's well known for its cards, AmEx also has a travel services business. Last night's positive earnings report from priceline.com (NAS: PCLN) makes it clear that traditional travel services have given way to online aggregators, which could threaten AmEx's business model in the space. Priceline shares surged more than 7%.
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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Dan Caplinger doesn't own shares of the companies mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter here. The Motley Fool owns shares of Intel, Google, and Microsoft. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of priceline.com, Intel, Google, and Microsoft, as well as writing a covered strangle position in American Express and creating a bull call spread position in Microsoft. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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