The Bulls Have the Dow by the Horns
In today's trading, investors are looking to extend their gains to three days, tying all the way back to last week's jobs numbers. Today's upswing is powered by earnings beats and the return of monetary policy rumors. Every time the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank exit a policy meeting without committing to any action, talk of market-boosting intervention vanishes for a couple of days... until everyone remembers the global economy still stinks and policymakers would be negligent to sit on their hands, and the rumor mill starts up again.
Let's take a closer look at how the three major indexes are faring and check out several stocks making headlines.
Index | Gain/Loss | Gain/Loss % | Intraday Value |
|---|---|---|---|
Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) | 66.48 | 0.51% | 13,162.65 |
Nasdaq | 19.75 | 0.67% | 2,987.65 |
S&P 500 | 6.54 | 0.47% | 1,397.53 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance as of 10:45 a.m. EDT.
About 80% of the Dow's components are seeing green, with the biggest gainer being JPMorgan Chase (NYS: JPM) , up 3.6%, because actual intervention by the Fed or ECB would boost financial stocks. Its Spanish compatriot Banco Santandar (NYS: SAN) is up a slightly larger 3.8%, as a plan to take pressure off Spain's borrowing costs is being formulated.
The biggest headline among Dow components is arguably a clinical trial failure for Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer (NYS: PFE) . Its potential Alzheimer's treatment bapineuzumab failed another late-stage trial and the companies have pulled the plug. Most investors had written off the drug's chances as anything but a long shot at best, so J&J is down only half a percent, with Pfizer is down 1.7%. However, part of their ability to shrug off the disappointment is their sheer size; smaller pharma partner Elan (NYS: ELN) is down 7% after paring back earlier losses.
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The article The Bulls Have the Dow by the Horns originally appeared on Fool.com.
David Williamsonowns shares of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned.Click hereto see his holdings and a short bio. The Motley Fool owns shares of Johnson & Johnson and JPMorgan Chase.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.Motley Fool newsletter servicesformerly recommended JPMorgan Chase.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended creating a diagonal call position in Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
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