Closing Bell: A win that felt too quiet (BRK-A, BAC, CCL, SNDK, SLM, WLP)

Posted Jun 18th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Bank of America (BAC), Carnival Corp (CCL), SLM Corp (SLM), SanDisk Corp (SNDK)

Today was one of those low news flow days where you never had any real solid feel for where the market would close until the very end of the session. We have seen too many rallies dashed by closing imbalances at the end of the day when there was thin volume.

Some Philly Fed data helped hold the market, and that was on the heels of the largest drop in continuing jobless claims since 2001. Some of the agriculture stocks staged a small comeback after yesterday's huge losses.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,554.77 +57.59 (0.68%)
S&P 500 918.34 +7.63 (0.84%)
Nasdaq 1,807.72 -0.34 (-0.02%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) was down 0.5% on an up trading day at $87,600.00. While he has been negative on it for some time, market technician Dennis Gartman said he's a seller of Mr. Buffett and friends.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) actually rose after word of big bonuses being paid out as it was not one of the S&P downgrades yesterday. Shares were up 4.5% at $12.86 late in the trading day.

Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) managed to hold up well despite earnings being lower. The lower earnings were actually ahead of estimates, even with the lowered guidance. Shares were up 8% at $5.64 late in the trading session.

SanDisk Corp (NASDAQ: SNDK) was hit after a downgrade. Needham cut the rating to Underperform. Shares were down almost 7% at $14.03 late in the trading session.

SLM Corporation (NYSE: SLM) rose after the Department of Education took away fears of its relevance because it awarded a five-year student loan servicing contract to it. Shares were up by 6% to $8.17 shortly ahead of the closing bell.

WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) rose after Jim Cramer referred to the stock as one of the survivors and strong values even under an Obama healthcare plan. Shares were up over 4% at $50.12 late in the trading session.

Tags: carnival, cruiseships, department of education, DepartmentOfEducation, sandisk, WLP