Thursday, January 24, 2008

Stocks mixed

Stocks are trying to decide which way to go after yesterday's wild finish, advancers lead decliners 3-2. Dow is up 13 & NAZ is up an impressive 19 after getting hammered for a few weeks. On yesterday's after-hours earnings, EBay (EBAY) is down 2.31. Nokia (NOK), a Finnish company, largest maker of mobile phones, is up 2.26 on good earnings news. AT&T (T) is down .65 after issuing a fairly good report. Ford (F) slipped a little on disappointing earnings which was expected. Meanwhile, there was gloomy news on last year's home sales. Sales of single family homes dropped 13%, biggest decline since 1982. The average price for a home suffered the first decline in 40 years. Today's news gives us a lot to think about after yesterday's late day rally.

For newcomers, I'll give a plug for the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, companies in the S&P 500 with track records of at least 25 years of higher dividends year of year. The link used is a year old, it includes First Horizon (FHN) which will have to be dropped this year after failing to increase the div last year. There are about 56 on the list (11%), an excellent group to look at when thinking about investing especially during these troubled times.

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