Top 10 News Items 4/16-4/20: Earnings Season is in Full Swing; Apple Continues Giving Up Gains; Buffett Announces Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
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Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. Earnings season is in full swing. This week some of the bigger reports were: GE (NYSE: GE), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), J&J (NYSE: JNJ), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). Amid the action, stocks rose about 1.5 percent.
2. Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) continued lower this week, pushing away from an all-time high at $644. The stock initially pushed below $600 on Monday only to bounce to around $620 by Wednesday. Shares closed 5.3 percent below last Friday's close. News was sparse this week, however, Verizon's results potentially gave a little insight into iPhone performance over the quarter.
3. Warren Buffett told Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) holders he has been diagnosed with Stage I prostate cancer. The headlines were certainly scary, but Buffett informed that this stage of prostate cancer is in no way life threatening or even debilitating. When asked about Berkshire Hathaway's operations by CNBC's Becky Quick, Buffett coolly responded with a casual "business as usual."
4. The majority of the US's major bank earnings hit the market this week. The sector closed modestly higher for the week. Here are the reports: Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Citi (NYSE: C), BofA (NYSE: BAC).
5. Shares of Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI) doubled on Thursday following news of a $13/share bid from Glaxo (NYSE: GSK). The company promptly rejected the offer.
6. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares had one of the strongest days in quite some time Friday following Q3 results which were strong. The company reported earnings of 60 cents per share, 2 cents better than the Street, on sales of $17.41 billion.
7. Several strong IPO's hit the market this week. Splunk (Nasdaq: SPLK) opened $32 after pricing at $17. The stock finished this week at $36. Tumi Holdings (Nasdaq: TUMI) closed this week's session around $26 after pricing at $18 and Infoblox (Nasdaq: BLOX) closed at $21.30 after pricing at $16.
8. First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) announced a massive restructuring this week which will include the laying off of some 30 percent of its workforce. The company cited "deteriorating market conditions." Although investors sold the stock initially, shares closed Tuesday's session up 10 percent, however most of the gains were given up over the remainder of the week.
9. On the housing front: NAHB housing market index for the month of April fell to 25, vs. the consensus of 28, housing starts for March fell 5.8 percent to 654,000, and existing home sales fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.48 million.
10. RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM) shares rose 4 percent on Monday following news the company is looking to hire an advisor in order to explore strategic options. Most analysts and pundits are pointing to a strategic investment or partnership or possibly the licensing of BlackBerry.
1. Earnings season is in full swing. This week some of the bigger reports were: GE (NYSE: GE), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), J&J (NYSE: JNJ), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). Amid the action, stocks rose about 1.5 percent.
2. Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) continued lower this week, pushing away from an all-time high at $644. The stock initially pushed below $600 on Monday only to bounce to around $620 by Wednesday. Shares closed 5.3 percent below last Friday's close. News was sparse this week, however, Verizon's results potentially gave a little insight into iPhone performance over the quarter.
3. Warren Buffett told Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) holders he has been diagnosed with Stage I prostate cancer. The headlines were certainly scary, but Buffett informed that this stage of prostate cancer is in no way life threatening or even debilitating. When asked about Berkshire Hathaway's operations by CNBC's Becky Quick, Buffett coolly responded with a casual "business as usual."
4. The majority of the US's major bank earnings hit the market this week. The sector closed modestly higher for the week. Here are the reports: Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Citi (NYSE: C), BofA (NYSE: BAC).
5. Shares of Human Genome Sciences (Nasdaq: HGSI) doubled on Thursday following news of a $13/share bid from Glaxo (NYSE: GSK). The company promptly rejected the offer.
6. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) shares had one of the strongest days in quite some time Friday following Q3 results which were strong. The company reported earnings of 60 cents per share, 2 cents better than the Street, on sales of $17.41 billion.
7. Several strong IPO's hit the market this week. Splunk (Nasdaq: SPLK) opened $32 after pricing at $17. The stock finished this week at $36. Tumi Holdings (Nasdaq: TUMI) closed this week's session around $26 after pricing at $18 and Infoblox (Nasdaq: BLOX) closed at $21.30 after pricing at $16.
8. First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) announced a massive restructuring this week which will include the laying off of some 30 percent of its workforce. The company cited "deteriorating market conditions." Although investors sold the stock initially, shares closed Tuesday's session up 10 percent, however most of the gains were given up over the remainder of the week.
9. On the housing front: NAHB housing market index for the month of April fell to 25, vs. the consensus of 28, housing starts for March fell 5.8 percent to 654,000, and existing home sales fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.48 million.
10. RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM) shares rose 4 percent on Monday following news the company is looking to hire an advisor in order to explore strategic options. Most analysts and pundits are pointing to a strategic investment or partnership or possibly the licensing of BlackBerry.
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