Closing Bell: Santa and Eggnog Preside over Stocks (IBM, BRK.A, UAUA, FNM, FRE AAPL)

Posted Dec 28th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), International Business Machines (IBM), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), UAL Corp (UAUA)

Today was a low volume trading day without much economic fanfare as many market participants were out or were talking about the Christmas holiday rather than the markets. The manufacturing output was reported for the Dallas and Chicago Fed Districts, but this in and of itself is rarely enough to heavily influence the markets. There will be more traders around on Tuesday and Wednesday most likely, but then it is likely to peter out again on Thursday ahead of the New Year's Day holiday this Friday. The markets were mixed throughout the trading day, and the real position for an up-close or down-close was something not known until the very end of the trading day.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,547.30 +27.20 (0.26%)
S&P 500 1,127.78 +1.30 (0.12%)
Nasdaq 2,291.08 +5.39 (0.24%)

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International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) was up almost all day after being touted on the front cover of Barron's this weekend. Shares were up 1.05% at $131.95 late in the trading day.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A) shares were lower most of the day after weekend reports that Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway had thousands of layoffs in 2009. Shares were down 0.2% at $98,745.00 late in the trading day.

UAL Corporation (UAUA) ended up trading lower than its morning recovery indicated after the holiday weekend's Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian citizen to blow up a Northwest Airline flight from Amsterdam into Detroit. Shares were down 3.7% at $12.60 in the final hour of trading.

Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were both higher all day on reports that the U.S. Treasury has ended a cap on how much financial aid can be applied, implying almost unlimited support. Fannie shares were up 19% at $1.26 and Freddie shares were up 25% at $1.58 late in the trading day.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) enjoyed new all-time highs, but did not trade around the new intra-day highs at the end of the despite despite Broadpoint AmTech raising its target to $260 from $235 per share. Reports also indicated short sellers left the stock as they worried about strengthening into the holidays. Shares were up 1.1% at $211.35 in the final hour of trading today.

Tags: AAPL, BRK-A, chicago, christmas, dallas, featured, FNM, FRE, IBM, manufacturing, UAUA