Closing Update for Friday, August 7: Day Up, Week Up

4:15 PM, Aug 7, 2009 --

• NYSE up 69.03, or 1.1%, at 6,586.
• DJIA up 113.9, or 1.2%, at 9,370.
• S&P 500 up 13.4, or 1.3%, at 1,010.
• Nasdaq up 27.09, or 1.4%, at 2,000.

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

• Hang Seng down 2.5%
• Nikkei up 0.2%
• FTSE down 0.7%

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) AIG (AIG) swings to Q2 profit.

(+) Nvidia (NVDA) holding extended-hours gains seen afer earnings beat.

(+) UCBH gains after results.

(+) FTI Consulting (FCN) gains on positive Jim Cramer comments.

(+) Altair Nanotech (ALTI) gets battery contract.

(+) Urban Outfitters (URBN) beats with sales, gets analyst upgrade.

(+) Crocs (CROX) extending evening gains seen after earnings beat.

(+) Continental Airlines (CAL) selling shares.

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) Dune Energy (DNE) reports narrower-than-expected loss.

(-) Novavax (NVAX) reports smaller-than-expected Q2 loss.

(-) Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reports wider loss.

(-) Omega Protein (OME) says it won't likely be in compliance with debt covenants this year.

(-) American Oriental Bioengineering (AOB) misses with Q2 estimates.

(-) Sirona Dental (SIRO) prices shares.

(-) PMI Group (PMI) posts Q2 loss.

(-) Sequenom (SQNM) continues evening decline that followed deeper-than-expected loss.

(-) Leap Wireless (LEAP) continues downside reaction to earnings.

MARKET DIRECTION

Stock averages close broadly higher, up 1% or better and holding most of the post-jobs report surge seen early Friday.

The S&P 500 hit 10-month highs, touching 1,018 at one point Friday. The S&P 500 advances 2.3% for the week. The DJIA ends the week up 2.2%, at 9,370 or its best level of the week. The Nasdaq advances 1.1% compared to where it stood last Friday.

The latest employment report added more credence to the view that the economy could be moving closer to recovery mode, although it is still losing jobs at a significant rate.

The Labor Department said companies shed 247,000 jobs in July, but economists had expected around 300,000 cuts. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.4% from 9.5% in June. Economists forecasted that the rate would rise to a 26-year-high 9.7%.

Financials were among the day's shiners. American International Group (AIG) posted its first quarterly profit since 2007 and continued a tear that has seen its stock surge over the past two trading sessions. The insurance giant, now majority owned by the government, reported $1.82 billion in Q2 earnings. The stock closed up over 20%.

The jobs report pushed up the dollar, weighing on crude prices even as stocks gained. September crude closed down 1.4% at $70.93 a barrel and is edging lower in extended-hours trading.

Comments

[whidbey:]

The story today was good, but there is no light at the end of the tunnel yet. What we are seeing is the speculation of early buyers of hope that a recovery is at hand. But beware this run has been long and on low volume, it will correct hard when it does correct. Where are we going ultimately? No one knows. Some think the recovery would come, the stimulus notwithstanding. Others know that the promise of the stimulus can only make things better so they want more. The true is that things are better, but not a recovery yet. Buying equities now is OK, but stick to the indexes and use stops. Nothing has changed but the level of hope.

Aug 07 06:28 PM

[Avooch:]

thought the big story was the accounting scandal at GE

gudovac1941.blogspot.com/

Aug 07 10:23 PM

[jbonefish:]

bc earnings already restated nobody cares ... GE continues to raor and cripple my short lol

Aug 07 11:03 PM

[David White:]

Airlines got a little more bad news today when Chevy announced its mpg figure of 230mpg for the Volt. Chevy called this figure conservative. With this kind of gas mileage, a few more people will elect to drive to "closer" airline destinations.

For people shorting airlines, this should give those stocks a little nudge downward. I haven't heard about any jet engine improvements in the pipeline that would begin to approach this "revolutionary" development.

Aug 11 09:09 AM

[David White:]

In the news today, the number of US airline departures declined. Airline stocks were down on the news. Swine flu hasn't even hit in force yet.
In reference to Swine Flu, only 45M swine flu vaccine doses will be ready for the US in October. They had expected 120M to be ready. This is bad news for the airlines.

Aug 18 01:43 AM