Closing Bell: stocks run on GDP, retail, and lower oil

Posted May 29th 2008 4:57PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Exxon Mobil (XOM), Sears Holdings (SHLD), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Trump Entertainment Resorts (TRMP)

Today's stock market rally may be more of a relief run than anything, but the end of day strength of late has been hard to ignore. Today we saw a huge drop of almost 9 million barrels of oil that caught traders off guard, but interestingly enough the oil markets dropped considerably. Combine that with a slightly higher revision to Q1 US GDP to +0.9% and all of a sudden the recession isn't looking so serious. These are the major US index closing levels:

DJIA 12,642.47 (+48.20)
S&P500 1,398.03 (+7.19)
NASDAQ 2,508.32 (+21.62)
52-WEEK LOWS
Top 10 Analyst Calls (ALU, CHS, LONG, IFX, JNPR, MAR, MFA, NSC, SNDA, VVUS)

Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) beat earnings and raised certain parts of guidance, and shares were up over 9% at $31.21 in the final minutes of trading.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) shares were down 1% to $89.51 in the final minutes today as oil prices fell so much today.

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) saw an 8% rise by the late-day move to $310.15, an all-time high, after the company told shareholders that it expects to grow faster even as the economy slows.

Sears Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLD) posted a wide loss rather than its expected gains. The only reason this wasn't a worse reaction is because shareholders had already been given a loose warning to expect dismal results; and Eddie Lampert is likely to see pressure to improve very soon. Shares were down almost 3% at $86.75 in very late-day trading.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. (NASDAQ: TRMP) rose a sharp 23% to $3.57 by the final minutes today after the company announced it was selling the trump Marina property for $316 million to become part of a Jimmy Buffett themed resort owned by Coastal Marina, LLC.

Tags: big lots, BigLots, eddie lampert, EddieLampert, jimmy buffet, JimmyBuffet, mastercard

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-29-2008 @ 6:58PM

william lindblad said...

The big IF here is will oil continue to fall?
I don't see where there is too much to read into a GDP report that says spending is "elsewhere". Exports do little for the domestic front. There is one real good sign that remains - optimism on the financial front.