Market Wrap: Buffett Picks GM; GM Un-Picks Facebook; JCPenney Holders 'Picked' Off

May 15, 2012 5:52 PM EDT
Market wrap-up for May 15th

End of the Day: Dow Jones down 63.4 to 12,632.00; Nasdaq down 8.8 to 2,893.76; S&P 500 down 7.7 to 1,330.66

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • Like a bald eagle delicately wrapped in a U.S. flag, with an apple pie in its talons and a dollar bill wadded-up in its beak...America is back!: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) showed new stakes in General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA-B) in its latest 13F filing. With GM, it means investment in America is back! For Viacom, it means...er, it means...Buffett wants his MTV?

    For more on Buffett's moves, click here.

  • Automaker 'unlikes' Facebook ad results. (And, no, we can't get enough of the 'like' pun.): Speaking of GM, the following is a rather interesting story as well. The U.S. automaker said it was stopping Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) advertisements as they were "ineffective."

    For those keeping score at home, Facebook is expected to IPO on Friday and recently boosted its expected price target range.

  • Well, one out of 10 ain't bad: The Dow closed lower for the ninth time in 10 sessions as news Greece failed to form a government hit markets rather hard. Greek president Karolos Papoulias said there will be a new election, with Greece's stay in the euro now in jeopardy.

    The WSJ also noted depositors removed about €700 million from local banks on Monday. Never a good sign even if your country is running on all eight cylinders.

  • The turnaround carries on: JCPenney (NYSE: JCP) shares are getting hit in the late-Tuesday session following a large first-quarter 2012 miss. JCPenney reported a loss of 25 cents per share on revenue of $3.15 billion. The Street was looking for a loss of 10 cents per share and revs of $3.48 billion. Comps dropped 18.9 percent.

    For more color on the quarter, click here.

  • PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) saw some late movement as Relational Investors LLC reported taking a 0.6 percent stake in the food and beverage giant. Though the overall stake is small, its a large one for the firm.
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