YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: Challenged by thin volume, equities endured
yet another day of lackluster action. After reaching lows during the first hour
of trade, stocks staged a slow, session-long recovery. As a result, the major
indices ended flat.
Healthcare was one of today's top performers. The space was lifted by Coventry Health Care (CVH 42.04, +7.10) as it surged 20.3%
after being acquired by
Technology stocks posted gains as the group's biggest component, Apple (AAPL 665.15, +17.04), advanced by 2.6%.
As shares marked a new all-time high above $665.00, the company achieved a
milestone market cap of $623.14 billion. This made Apple the most valuable
company in history. Competitors Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ 20.09, +0.57) and Dell
(DELL 12.56, +0.34) gained 2.9% and 2.8%, respectively. The two computer makers
are scheduled to release their earnings later in the week.
Airline stocks outperformed after Southwest
Airlines (LUV 9.44, +0.31) announced a $10
increase in the price of nearly a third of its flights. Shares of the discount
airline ended higher by 3.4%. Other carriers followed the announcement with
fare hikes of their own. United Continental
Holdings (UAL 19.45, +1.05) and JetBlue (JBLU 5.27, +0.21) jumped 5.7% and 4.2%,
respectively.
The consumer discretionary sector underperformed with some of the biggest
losses observed in homebuilder stocks. The group retreated after making a broad
advance resulting from Thursday's positive new housing permit data. KB Home (KBH 10.59, -0.45) was down 4.1% while NVR (NVR 811.59, -32.17) and DR Horton (DHI 18.41, -0.57) ended lower by 3.8%
and 3.0%, respectively.
The telecommunications sector was the day's biggest laggard. Stocks within the
space have been on a strong run recently and today's weakness appeared to be
due to profit-taking rather than a sector-wide sell-off. Sprint (S 5.11, -0.08) shed 1.5% and MetroPCS
(PCS 9.91, -0.12) was off by 1.2%.
Lowe's (LOW 26.26, -1.61) fell
5.8% on heavy volume. Shares of the hardware retailer are under pressure after
the company delivered disappointing results which showed both earnings and
revenues misses, and lowered guidance. Competitor Home Depot (HD 56.57, -0.16) slipped 0.3%.
Best Buy (BBY 18.16, -2.11) slumped
10.4% after Hubert Joly was named as the new Chief
Executive Officer. Shares of the technology retailer are under pressure as the
board of directors steps up its battle with founder
Richard Schulze over an attempted buyout. Best Buy will report earnings
tomorrow before the bell.
Crude oil spent the majority of its floor session in negative
territory. The energy component fell to a session low of $95.32 per barrel in
morning action and then worked on erasing the loss. It dipped again in the
afternoon pit session but a rally heading into the close helped push prices up
briefly into the black to a session high of $96.45 per barrel. The late effort
had crude settle just 3 cents lower at $96.29 per barrel.
Natural gas fell into the red in morning pit action, but investors quickly
stepped in and brought prices back into positive territory. The momentum
continued for the remainder of pit trade, and natural gas settled 2.2% higher
at $2.78 per MMBtu, or just below its session high of
$2.79 per MMBtu. Precious metals got a boost during
today's pit trade from a weakening dollar.
Gold came off its floor session low of $1611.80 per ounce and broke into
positive territory by late morning action. It then brushed a session high of
$1624.50 per ounce and settled at $1622.90 per ounce for a gain of 0.2%. Silver
dipped to a session low of $27.88 per ounce but quickly recovered back into the
black. Prices began to see real strength as the metal rallied in late morning
action and touched a session high of $28.65 per ounce. Silver then consolidated
in afternoon action and settled at $28.60, or 2.2% higher.
There is no notable economic data scheduled for release tomorrow.DJ30 -3.56
NASDAQ -0.38 SP500 -0.03 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 999/1.41
bln/1435 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1322/550.9 mln/1671