Deal-Making Pushes Stocks Higher
Investors were in a good mood today on a number of positive developments in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are both up 0.49% near the end of trading. Of course, hope for a fiscal-cliff solution was the overarching sentiment, but there were more detailed items that helped push stocks higher.
The Fed began its rate-setting meeting today and will announce monetary policy decisions tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. EST. Investors are hoping the Fed will ease some of the fiscal-cliff tension, so there's a lot of attention on Ben Bernanke this week. Today, the Treasury sold $32 billion of three-year notes with a record-low 0.327% yield, so investors are expecting the Fed to keep rates low.
Apple jumped 3.1% after Chinese partner Unicom announced it had sold 300,000 preordered iPhones that will go on sale Friday. The iPhone is still a hot consumer item, and this stock has been treated as if Apple has lost its touch recently, but at least today is a good day.
Shares of AIG jumped 5.1% today after the Treasury said it had sold its remaining shares in the company. In the end, the treasury made a $22.7 billion profit on the $182 billion bailout of AIG. This doesn't really change AIG's business, but it will grant management more flexibility. It's unknown at this point whether that's a good thing or not.
Finally, Delta Air Lines jumped 6.8% after announcing that it bought a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic Airways. Richard Branson will retain control of the company. At the very least, this gives Delta a little bit of a "cool" factor to be associated with Branson.
Is Apple a buy today?
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The article Deal-Making Pushes Stocks Higher originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Travis Hoium manages an account that owns shares of Apple. You can follow Travis on Twitter at @FlushDrawFool, check out his personal stock holdings or follow his CAPS picks at TMFFlushDraw. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and American International Group and has the following options: long JAN 2014 $25.00 calls on American International Group. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Apple and American International Group. 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 Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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