Market Wrap: The Papa's Have It; France is Still AAA-OK!; A Pinch of Apple; Making Coffee into Juice

Market wrap-up for November 10th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 112.91 to 11,893.86; Nasdaq up 3.50 to 2,625.15; S&P 500 up 10.6 to 1,239.70

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:

• Whoops, our bad!: Amid European concerns, stocks found the strength to end Thursday's session in the black. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, of McGraw Hill (NYSE: MHP), affirmed that any issue with France's rating was due to a technical glitch, and it affirmed France's triple-A status.
  
  
• So many Papa's, its hard to choose: Well, those Greeks who've sported a "Elect Papa '12" or "Papa Runs Greece!" or "Who's Your Papa?" shirt recently will be able to save some bucks for at least a little while. Reports Thursday have Former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos (who has arguably the best name of any exec/governmental leader in the EU), was named interim Prime Minister of Greece. Papademos has been given a mandate to form the government.
  
  
• Looking for more 'bucks': Starbucks Corporation (Nasdaq: SBUX) is brewing up something good... and it ain't the coffee. Earlier in the session, Starbucks said it acquired Evolution Fresh, Inc. in a $30 million cash deal. The move means Starbucks might do to juice what it did to coffee. We'll let your imagination fill in the rest.
  
  Investors might turn their focus to Jamba Juice. Jamba shares are down about 9.6 percent after-hours, after closing flat on the session.
  
  
• Don't tell us Apple's succumbing to pressure: Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) ended about 2.6 percent lower Thursday, as investors and traders worried that Apple might be cutting shipments on lower iPad demand. The chatter was started by one analyst firm, which cut iPad estimates on potential competition from Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) Kindle Fire.
  
  Yesterday, Apple cut iPhone 4S shipments, according to reports, sending initial shock waves through the stock.
  
  
• Merck, translated in German, roughly means: "Give more back." Today it does, anyway: Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) raised its quarterly dividend for the first time in seven years, data shows, boosting it from 38 cents to 42 cents, or $1.68 annualized. The dividend, yielding about 5 percent at today's trading range, makes Merck a more attractive stock for dividend investors, and may provide a little bump moving forward.

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