The Dow is Up as Financials Rebound and Tech Continues to Fall
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 94 points, to 15,930, at 1:30 p.m. ET as stocks rebound after yesterday's fall. Financial stocks are leading the Dow higher, while the technology sector continues to drop after Apple reported weaker than expected guidance. The S&P 500 was up 10 points to 1,791.
Yesterday, financial stocks joined with technology stocks to push the Dow down. Today, though, financial stocks are rebounding. Technically, Pfizer is leading the Dow's rise today with a 2.9% rise, but because the Dow is a price-weighted index the drugmaker's low stock price means the company has a small effect on the blue-chip index. Visa is No. 2 for the day, up 2.1%. Its significantly more expensive stock price means Visa is having a seven times larger effect on the Dow today than Pfizer. Trailing Visa are American Express, General Electric, and JPMorgan Chase, which are all up just more than 1%.
There is no company-specific news for Visa's rise. The payment processor reports earnings on Thursday before the market opens. Financial stocks are up as the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index rose for the second straight month; it now sits at 80.7, above analyst expectations of 77.1. As confidence rises consumers are expected to spend more which means more transactions and more money for Visa.
Technology stocks are continuing yesterday's fall after Apple reported weaker than expected guidance. While Apple is not a member of the Dow, as the world's largest technology company its actions, outlook, and movement have a large effect on the technology sector. Apple fell more than 7% after yesterday reporting first-quarter guidance of revenue of $42 billion-$44 billion. Analysts had expected the company to report a revenue guidance of $46 billion. Activist investor Carl Icahn is taking advantage of the lower stock price; he tweeted this morning that he had bought another $500 million shares, bringing his Apple stake to nearly $4 billion dollars. Icahn continues to advocate for Apple to buy back shares, while I believe that the company should pay out a large special dividend.
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The article The Dow is Up as Financials Rebound and Tech Continues to Fall originally appeared on Fool.com.
Dan Dzombak has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Visa. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Visa. 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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