Walmart's New Health Food Push: Is It Too Hard to Swallow?
Bonds Are a 'Safe' Investment: A Big Lie Gets Even Bigger
Stocks staged a comeback late in the day after swinging up this morning and then down in the afternoon. What is odd is that it was another one of those days where if you were not watching the actual index readings tick by tick, you might not know if the market was up or down because of a lack of enthusiasm. Confidence did come in a tad higher than expected. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA: 8,479.86 (+0.43%)
NASDAQ: 1,464.73 (-0.50%)
S&P 500 857.41 (+0.66%)
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was down on word that it was closing most of its headquarter offices for four days around the Christmas and New Years periods as part of its cost containment. The interpretation is that there is no magic growth when there shouldn't be any reason to expect it anyway. Shares were down almost 6% at $15.47 right before the close.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) rose sharply on word that it is cutting many contract worker positions, but said it is not laying off full-time workers. Oddly enough, the search giant used to be measured by its headcount growth for a means of forward growth, so this rally is a bit odd even in a cost containment world. Shares were up 10% at $284.95 right before the close.
Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) lived up to its guidance of last week. The company maintained the same outlook ahead, although in this report it was more cautious on the consumer hardware and consumer spending side. Unfortunately, traders sold the news and shares were down over 6% at $33.33 shortly before the close.
Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) had a monster trading day on an analyst upgrade as analyst upgrades in this sector have been few and far between. The home builder was Raised to "buy" at UBS. Shares were up almost 40% at $6.43 right before the close.
Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) traded lower a day after filed its annual report with the SEC and it contained a notice inside that the Flat to +1% base case in same store sales into 2009 is now going to be negative. Arguably this may not be a surprise in the recession, but the market cast its vote by trading it down. Shares were down 3.3% at $8.17 right before the close.
Goldman Earnings Sink After Buffett Dividend
Johnson & Johnson's Income Falls 23%
Burberry Shares Leap on Sales Update
