Top 10 News Items 2/13-2/17: Apple Breaks $500 Level; Greece Awaits Euro Leader Meeting on Bailout; Earnings Move Stocks Sharply
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Price: $167.04 -0.57%
Overall Analyst Rating:
NEUTRAL (= Flat)
Dividend Yield: 0.5%
Revenue Growth %: -4.1%
Overall Analyst Rating:
NEUTRAL (= Flat)
Dividend Yield: 0.5%
Revenue Growth %: -4.1%
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Here is a recap of the top news items from Wall Street this week:
1. Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) cracked the lofty $500 per share level on Monday of this week, pushing the stock to over $450 billion in market cap. While shares ran up Monday, Tuesday and for the morning session of Wednesday (moving to an all-time high at $526.29), shares sold off and closed this week's session just over $500. On Wednesday, amid massive volume (53 million shares traded), Apple seemed to take down the market as it declined -- not the other way around.
2. While Apple was certainly the individual story of the week, macro-oriented traders had their eyes on Europe and the Greek bailout. Over last weekend, Greek officials passed austerity measures aimed at putting the beleaguered nation back on its feet. Euro finance ministers delayed a meeting to approve the €130 billion bailout fund to Monday. US traders will not be able to react til Tuesday, as the US stock market is closed Monday for President's Day.
3. Earnings reports had a number of stocks swinging sharply this week: GM (NYSE: GM) missed results but then the stock surged 9 percent, Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) shares rose 12 percent following its report, Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) shares plunged nearly 18 percent despite a Q4 beat, NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) shares fell 4 percent.
4. Following Diamond Food's Audit Committee's findings late last week, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) announced the termination of its deal to sell Pringles to Diamond. Very shortly after this news hit wires, Kellogg (NYSE: K) issued a release saying it would be buying Pringles for $2.695 billion. Diamond Foods shares finished this week's session up 5 percent.
5. First-time jobless claims in the US dipped to a four-year low this week, coming in at a better-than-expected 348,000. The Street had been expecting claims of 365,000. The prior week reading was revised from 367,000 to 373,000.
6. Housing starts for the month of January rose 1.5 percent to an annually-adjusted rate of 699,000, above the economist estimate of 675,000. Building permits, a great gauge of future housing starts rose 0.7 percent to 676,000. The XHB ETF (NYSE: XHB) closed about 1 percent higher this week.
7. Both the Senate and House approved the extension of the US's payroll tax cut through 2012 this week. The next step will be for Obama to sign the measure.
8. Gilead (Nasdaq: GILD) shares plunged a whopping 15 percent on Friday (equating to about $6 billion in lost market cap) after the company said a majority of hepatitis C genotype 1 patients with a prior "null" response to an interferon (IFN)-containing regimen enrolled in the ongoing ELECTRON study experienced viral relapse within four weeks of completing 12 weeks of treatment with GS-7977 plus ribavirin. The news had shares of Achillion (Nasdaq: ACHN) and Vertex (Nasdaq: VRTX) on the move, up 23 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
9. Shares of CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI) had a good week on Wall Street as Carl Icahn disclosed a $30/share bid for the company. Icahn also said he plans to nominate nine directors to the Board. Icahn believes a bid could approach $37/share.
10. The solar sector was on fire Friday as several positive news items had stocks moving sharply higher: SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) reported a surprise Q4 profit, Suntech (NYSE: STP) offered strong Q4 guidance and cut its shipment decline estimate, and Collins Stewart made some positive comments related to First Solar's (Nasdaq: FSLR) Antelope Valley Solar Ranch project. The TAN ETF (NYSE: TAN) closed up 4.2 percent on Friday.
1. Shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) cracked the lofty $500 per share level on Monday of this week, pushing the stock to over $450 billion in market cap. While shares ran up Monday, Tuesday and for the morning session of Wednesday (moving to an all-time high at $526.29), shares sold off and closed this week's session just over $500. On Wednesday, amid massive volume (53 million shares traded), Apple seemed to take down the market as it declined -- not the other way around.
2. While Apple was certainly the individual story of the week, macro-oriented traders had their eyes on Europe and the Greek bailout. Over last weekend, Greek officials passed austerity measures aimed at putting the beleaguered nation back on its feet. Euro finance ministers delayed a meeting to approve the €130 billion bailout fund to Monday. US traders will not be able to react til Tuesday, as the US stock market is closed Monday for President's Day.
3. Earnings reports had a number of stocks swinging sharply this week: GM (NYSE: GM) missed results but then the stock surged 9 percent, Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) shares rose 12 percent following its report, Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) shares plunged nearly 18 percent despite a Q4 beat, NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) shares fell 4 percent.
4. Following Diamond Food's Audit Committee's findings late last week, Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) announced the termination of its deal to sell Pringles to Diamond. Very shortly after this news hit wires, Kellogg (NYSE: K) issued a release saying it would be buying Pringles for $2.695 billion. Diamond Foods shares finished this week's session up 5 percent.
5. First-time jobless claims in the US dipped to a four-year low this week, coming in at a better-than-expected 348,000. The Street had been expecting claims of 365,000. The prior week reading was revised from 367,000 to 373,000.
6. Housing starts for the month of January rose 1.5 percent to an annually-adjusted rate of 699,000, above the economist estimate of 675,000. Building permits, a great gauge of future housing starts rose 0.7 percent to 676,000. The XHB ETF (NYSE: XHB) closed about 1 percent higher this week.
7. Both the Senate and House approved the extension of the US's payroll tax cut through 2012 this week. The next step will be for Obama to sign the measure.
8. Gilead (Nasdaq: GILD) shares plunged a whopping 15 percent on Friday (equating to about $6 billion in lost market cap) after the company said a majority of hepatitis C genotype 1 patients with a prior "null" response to an interferon (IFN)-containing regimen enrolled in the ongoing ELECTRON study experienced viral relapse within four weeks of completing 12 weeks of treatment with GS-7977 plus ribavirin. The news had shares of Achillion (Nasdaq: ACHN) and Vertex (Nasdaq: VRTX) on the move, up 23 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
9. Shares of CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI) had a good week on Wall Street as Carl Icahn disclosed a $30/share bid for the company. Icahn also said he plans to nominate nine directors to the Board. Icahn believes a bid could approach $37/share.
10. The solar sector was on fire Friday as several positive news items had stocks moving sharply higher: SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) reported a surprise Q4 profit, Suntech (NYSE: STP) offered strong Q4 guidance and cut its shipment decline estimate, and Collins Stewart made some positive comments related to First Solar's (Nasdaq: FSLR) Antelope Valley Solar Ranch project. The TAN ETF (NYSE: TAN) closed up 4.2 percent on Friday.
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