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Market Wrap: Obama Wants Millionaires to Pay; Greece Gets It Done; Apple's Cinquecento Day

February 13, 2012 5:34 PM EST
Market wrap-up for February 14th

End of the Day: Dow Jones up 72.8 to 12,874.04; Nasdaq up 27.5 to 2,931.39; S&P 500 up 9.1 to 1,351.77

The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
  • New austerity measures on tap: Over the weekend, Greece's leaders passed austerity measures aimed at putting the beleaguered nation back on its feet. Some tough decisions -- layoffs and pension cuts -- will need to be made, but Greece will now be able to get €130 billion in bailout funds it needs to stay afloat.

    Before anything else is done, finance ministers will meet Wednesday to sign-off on the austerity legislation. For more color, click here.

    Notably, National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG) closed about 12 percent better Monday.

  • Now Buffett is rich and famous!: President Obama proposed a replacement of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) legislation with the so-called "Buffett rule," which aims for more taxes on the rich. Also, Obama is looking to let Bush-era tax cuts expire as well as put heavier levies on the oil and gas industry, fund managers, and estates.

  • Google gets approval for mobile mega-deal: Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) popped a little Monday afternoon following reports the European Union and US have cleared Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) proposed acquisition of the mobile device vendor.

    The EU cautioned the two they should stop using certain patents to sue each other. They will continued to monitor the combination.

    Google proposed to acquire Motorola last year for $12.5 billion.

  • Apple gets a 'D': Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) finally made it above the $500 price level for the first time in its history, closing up 1.9 percent to $502.60. What may be most impressive about the move is Apple was trading at $420 or so ahead of its first-quarter earnings report, meaning shares of the world's largest company traversed an additional 19 percent in the span of a few weeks.

    (Note: 'D' of course refers to the Roman numeral for 500. What....? You thought investors hated Apple? Pleeeease.)

  • The nuttiest news of the day: Diamond Foods (Nasdaq: DMND) ended the session down about 5.9 percent following reports several farmers will cease selling walnuts to the company following the recent accounting scandal. Though initial reports have only a handful of suppliers out of the some 1,000 Diamond uses, many more might following should word spread. For more color, click here.
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