All in all, this was actually a light day on the news flow for major stocks. Today's dismal Case-Shiller data for a record drop in housing prices was trumped completely by a surge in consumer confidence this morning. The notion that North Korea did a nuclear bomb test was only important for discussions during the very early morning, but slowly faded thereafter. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 8,473.49 +196.17 (2.37%)
S&P 500 910.31 +23.31 (2.63%)
Nasdaq 1,750.43 +58.42 (3.45%)
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First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was one of the losers in the solar space after FBR downgraded the stock to Underperform and gave it a $110 price target. Its shares were down almost 6% at $180.50 late in the day. A smaller solar player called Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ) posted a narrower loss, and its stock actually rose on the news. It started negative on the day but was up nearly 10% at $10.99 late in the day.
Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) is selling $1 billion in commercial mortgage bonds backed by multifamily loans, the first of its sort with the backing of the GSE on it. The GSA was down 2.25% at $0.77 late in the day.
General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) was up 2.5% at $13.43 late in the day despite some cautious comments. CEO Jeff Immelt said in a presentation that the economy's growth ahead would be lower than in years past, making its own growth a question.
General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) has the June 1 deadline still looming and the company divulged a larger stake for the UAW in ownership post-bankruptcy than what was expected by some creditors. Shares were up 10% at $1.57 late in the day.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) rose 3% to $20.40 in late day trading on word that the software giant is planning a new search engine. Bing will get up to $100 million in promotion.
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