After Market: When Yellen Talks, Investors Smile - and Buy

DailyFinance Staff
Updated


For years we've talked about Bernanke-inspired rallies. Tuesday brought the market its first Yellen-inspired rally.

New Fed Chair Janet Yellen reassured the market that it could expect more of the same from the central bank. In congressional testimony, she promised "a great deal of continuity" with the policies of her predecessor, Ben Bernanke. Yellen said she was surprised by the weak pace of job growth in December and January, but did not want to "jump to conclusions" about the longer-term implications.

Yellen Testimony
AP/Cliff OwenFederal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen testifies on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Investors liked what they heard. TheDow Jones industrial average (^DJI) soared 193 points and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) gained 20, extending a 4-day rally that is its best since late 2011. And the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) rose 43 points, putting it back in positive territory for 2014.

Among the blue chip leaders: Boeing (BA) and Goldman Sachs (GS) both up 2 percent. Goldman is getting out of the business of trading uranium.

This was a broad-based rally, with the number of gainers swamping the number of losers.

Newmont Mining (NEM), Goldcorp (G) and other gold-related stocks were strong as the price of gold continued to rise.

%VIRTUAL-article-sponsoredlinks%Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) remained in rally mode following its deal last week with Coca-Cola (KO) to provide in-home systems to make single-serve cold drinks. It gained 7½ percent today and over the past week it's soared 49 percent.

Cadence Pharmaceuticals (CADX) jumped 26 percent after agreeing to be acquired by Mallinckrodt (MNK), which rose 11 percent. ComScore (SCOR) also rose 11 percent. It named a new CEO and reached a deal to provide ratings services for Google (GOOG).

The losers were led by two tech service providers.

Infoblox (BLOX) tumbled 48 percent on a weak earnings forecast. And Rackspace (RACK) fell 19 percent. Net fell more than expected and its CEO resigned.

And several food companies got chewed over. ConAgra (CAG) fell 6 percent after lowering its outlook for the year. Dean Foods (DF) dropped 7 percent due to an earnings miss. It was hurt by the rising price of milk. And the natural foods company Annie's (BNNY) fell 8½ percent after slashing its full year outlook.

What to Watch Wednesday:

  • The Energy Information Administration releases weekly data on petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m.

  • The Treasury Department releases January budget figures at 2 p.m.

These major companies are scheduled to report quarterly financial results:

  • CBS (CBS)

  • Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)

  • Cisco Systems (CSCO)

  • Deere (DE)

  • Equifax (EFX)

  • Lorillard (LO)

  • Mondelez (MDLZ)

  • Nvidia (NVDA)

  • Owens Corning (OC)

  • Thomson Reuters (TRI)

  • Whole Foods Market (WFM)

  • Zillow (Z)

-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.

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