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Market Wrap: Facebook Lets 'Em Have It; ECB Wants More (Banking) Unity; Dell Doles Out; A123 Gets Energized

June 12, 2012 5:45 PM EDT
Market wrap-up for June 12th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 162.6 to 12,573.80; S&P 500 up 15.3 to 1,324.18; Nasdaq up 33.3 to 2,843.07

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • We can do this! Together!: Late in the session Tuesday, stocks rebounded on headlines the European Central Bank (ECB) was reiterating its stance on forming a banking union in the euro area. The ECB suggested "an organization which would including sweeping deposit guarantees and industry contributions."

  • Talk about pent-up aggression: Facebook's (Nasdaq: FB) quiet period following the filing of its IPO ended Tuesday and the social media giant went on the offensive to defend the cost of advertising on its site. A study commissioned by Facebook and run by comScore showed the benefits to advertising on the site, saying pages with "likes" on them or shared company data generally led to higher sales.

    The WSJ cited Facebook measurement and insight head Brad Smallwood on saying "It's a myth that Facebook advertising doesn't work."

    Specifically, comScore evaluated fans and friends of coffee giant Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX). There were two groups in the study, those exposed to Starbucks messages and those who weren't. Results showed those exposed bought 38 percent more from Starbucks than the isolated group.

    ComScore also followed fans of Target (NYSE: TGT), finding that they were 21 percent more likely to buy from Target than those who weren't Facebook fans of Target. There were also some mixed results with other retailers.

  • Besides money, the next option was motherboards: Following the close of trading Tuesday, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) said it would initiate a dividend payment moving forward as it look to boost its targeted capital distribution rate from 10 to 30 percent currently to 20 to 35 percent. The 8-cent-per-quarter payout will yield 2.7 percent annually, which is just about in-line with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT).

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