Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Dow surges on earnings reports

Dow surged today on great earnings reports from Dow stocks. JPMorgan (JPM), Coca Cola (KO) & Intel (INTC) reported earnings traders were happy to see, so they bid up stocks. Dow was up 255, advancers ahead of decliners 5-1 and NAZ was up 64. All this sounds good except for volume which was coming in at 1.36B at the close, still low. Old timers worry that continuing low volume is a bad sign. After the close IBM, another Dow stock, reported excellent earnings sending the stock up 3.50 after hours following a 3.30 gain during the day. IBM reported EPS for Q1 of 1.65 easily beating 1.45 analysts were estimating.

Meanwhile oil jumped to a record 115, but settled at 114.93. Gas at the pump is at a record 3.40. up 53¢ from last year. The economy weakened in the spring according to Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She said the economy "has all but stalled and could even contract over the first half of the year." It's good to keep in mind that times remain tough in the US.

I'll be in & out for the next couple of days, but I will try to continue with my comments.

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