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Investors reacted favorably to Feb. 13 news of an unexpected increase in first-time jobless claims for the previous week, as well as a decline in January retail sales sending stocks on a broad rally for most of the day’s trading activity.
The previous day, St. Louis Fed Reserve President James Bullard’s indicated that a progressively improving US economy would mean a normalization of the Central Bank’s monetary politics, which had somewhat rattled investors.
The Final Tally
● Standard & Poor’s 500: +0.58 percent to 1,829.83
● Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.40 percent to 16,027.59
● Nasdaq: +0.94 to 4,240.67
Our Top Stories
● Equities.com’s respected analyst George Brooks on Wall Street’s reaction to US economic indicators.
● Mike Turner discusses strategies for an uncertain market that could break either way.
● CrowdCast’s conversation with Sam Hodges on peer-to-peer lending.
● The Life Sciences Report speaks with H.C. Wainwright’s Reni Benjamin about the prospects for regenerative medicine.
● Etienne Moshevich on Rango Energy ($RANO) and other producers working to unlock the vast crude reserves of the Monterey Shale.
● Andy Wadlock on the base that is forming in the corn futures market.
● The Mining Report tells us what Indonesia’s ore export ban will meanfor metals producers going forward.
● Jacob Harper on Olympic champions who went on to succeed in other careers.
● The Bank of Ireland (IRE) is leading the economic recovery in the Irish financial sector, and setting some good precedents along the way.
● Angie’s List (ANGI) saw shares sink throughout the day after the company’s 4th quarter financials disappointed investors.
On the S&P 500
Leading US cable service provider Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) shed almost 4 percent on the day, after the company announced a $45 billion all-stock purchase of it’s second-place rival Time Warner Cable (TWC) . Shares for TWC went the other direction, gaining about 7 percent by the closing bell. Telecommunications providers Sprint Nextel (S) and AT&T (T) seem to have been caught in the updraft on gains of 4 and 1.5 percent respectively.
One of the day’s worst performances was posted by Whole Foods Market (WFM) , who saw shares take a 7.5 percent dive after releasing disappointing guidance for 2014.
On the Dow
A strong day on the Dow saw 8 components in the red, most of them negligibly so with the exception of Cisco Systems (CSCO) , off over 3.5 percent after releasing its own underwhelming quarterly earnings report. Meanwhile, Unitedhealth Group (UNH) , Boeing (BA) and Nike (NKE) were on the winning-most end of the benchmark index, each up over 1 percent.
On the Nasdaq
Tech stocks were the big story on the Nasdaq exchange, with a number of companies scoring big gains, undeterred by the trouble over at Cisco Systems. Facebook (FB) jumped some 4 percent, while semiconductor company Applied Materials (AMAT) was up nearly 6 percent. Other hardware companies also trading higher were NVIDIA (NVDA) , up 2.25 percent, Intel (INTC) up 0.50 percent, Plug Power Inc. (PLUG) , up nearly 5 percent, and Himax Technologies (HIMX) , up nearly 2 percent. Leading device maker Apple (AAPL) added 1.33 percent ahead of the closing bell.