Closing Bell: Dow manages a gain; PCLN flops, MSFT rises

Posted Aug 6th 2008 4:14PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: After the Bell, Major Movement, Microsoft (MSFT), Market Matters, Whole Foods Market (WFMI), EMC Corp (EMC), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)

Despite the fact that the markets were lower much of the day, they eventually managed to on the session higher. This was a win considering that profit takers and short sellers weren't able to hammer down the market after such large gains Tuesday. Oil fell again to levels under $119.00.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA 11,655.42 (+39.65)
S&P 500 1,289.38 (+4.50)
NASDAQ 2,377.87 (+28.04)
10YR T-BOND 4.048% +0.0410
Top Upgrades & Downgrades

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) shares were down under 1% right before the close today, although they had been down 5% after some rumors that Cisco was interested in the company were put to sleep.

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is continuing to see options speculation build in the stock. Shares were mostly flat today, but options volume was huge again and is up 10% in seven trading sessions.

Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) flopped. The company beat earnings and somewhat reaffirmed targets, but investors wanted more. Some comments on the international side were all the bears needed to crash this one. Shares were down sharply, almost 17%, to $97.54 in today's final minutes.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose today on word of an accelerated share buyback plan to the tune of $20 billion worth of stock. Shares were up over 3% at $27.11 in today's final minutes.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) isn't living up to the name "Whole Paycheck" very well. The company missed earnings by a wide margin, lowered forward guidance, slowed its store growth plans and suspended its dividend. Shares were down almost 14% at $19.72 in the final minutes of trading.

Tags: csco, emc, featured, kft, msft, pcln, wfmi