Closing Bell: Earnings keep gains coming

Posted Jul 23rd 2008 4:21PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: After the Bell, Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Market Matters, AT and T (T), Bank of America (BAC), Costco Wholesale (COST)

Today we saw another market gain, but several key stocks gave back some recent gains. The oil inventories report as well as reports Hurricane Dolly only took down a max of 8% of Gulf of Mexico and nearby production, helped lower oil prices over $3.00 to under $125.00 per barrel. Today was rather light on the economic front so the market was led higher mostly thanks to earnings from DJIA components. Longer-term rates rose on Fed comments today calling for rates to rise sooner rather than later, although that was independent and slightly different than the actual Beige Book comments.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA 11632.70 (+30.30)
S&P500 1282.05 (+5.05)
NASDAQ 2325.88 (+21.92))
10YR T-Note 4.148 (+0.05%)
TOP ANALYST UPGRADES
TOP ANALYST DOWNGRADES
52-WEEK LOWS

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was the winner of DJIA components after reporting earnings this morning, particularly since it has lost nearly one-third of its value. Shares were up 4% at $33.11 in today's final minutes.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) rose after announcing it was keeping its 64 cents dividend as Ken Lewis had promised. The real charm though was the new $3.75 billion common stock buyback plan to be executed over the next 12 to 18 months. Shares were up 3.7% at $33.57 in today's final minutes.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) tanked after warning earnings would fall short for the quarter due to higher energy, higher oil and higher wholesale costs that it hasn't passed on to consumers. Shares were down 12% at $63.28 in today's final minutes.

Sirius Satellite radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) was today's winner on multiple reports that the last FCC swing vote from the commissioners was going in favor of approving the merger. Shares were up over 10% at $2.63 in today's final minutes.

Tags: bac, cost, inthenews, siri, t

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-23-2008 @ 4:41PM

Steve in Denver said...

Lets see. Earning keep comong in better that the "analysts" and "experts" expected. There is actually talk of more domestic oil exploration. The war in Iraq really is quite successful, and even the media are having trouble finding fault with the results. The "housing crisis" never really was in municipalities that have good economies. You don't suppose this "economic downturn", "crisis", "recession" is just so much overblown media hype?!?

7-23-2008 @ 5:10PM

huh? said...

Steven, so I didn't actually lose a large amount of money in my mutual fund? The DJIA, NASDAQ, S&P 500 all didn't lose 18% in the past year? Gas and home heating oil do not cost twice as much as they did last year? Inflation isn't up? It was all just overblown hype put on by the liberal media? Thank god! I was getting nervous their for a minute. Damn libs get us everytime.