Stock Market News for October 27, 2010 - Market News

After a lackadaisical session, stocks closed mostly flat on Tuesday as mixed earnings and economic reports failed to motivate traders. Investors appeared jittery ahead of next week’s mid-term elections and a sliding dollar.

The blue-chip Dow average gained a little more than 5 points to close at 11,169.46. Gains on the DJIA were led by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). DuPont (NYSE:DD) and P&G (NYSE:PG) led on the downside. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which comes out with its quarterly results on Thursday, jumped 2.8% even as a Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) analyst maintained a “buy” rating on the shares with a $32 price target.

The broader S&P’s 500-stock index rose 6.44 points, or 0.3%, to close at 2497.29. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ended the session almost unchanged. On the New York Stock Exchange, only 963 million shares exchanged hands as declining issues beat those that advanced in price by an 8-to-7 margin. Meanwhile, the CBOE Vix, gained 1.9% to cross 20.

As the guessing game over Fed’s expected decision to buy bonds continued, this morning the Wall Street Journal came out with a report suggesting the central bank would buy no more than $200 billion worth of bonds and the purchases would be spread over several months. Speculation has been rife that the Fed is planning to purchase at least $500 billion in Treasury bonds as it launches the second leg of its quantitative easing to stimulate economic growth.

Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) cash-rich balance sheet continued to fuel speculations of possible acquisition. Those speculations sent Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares soaring 6.5% yesterday.

However, the dollar regained some of its recent losses and rose 0.7% to 77.89 against a basket of currencies as it advanced against the euro and yen. Japanese officials had appeared worried and had talked about further intervention after yen reached a 15-year high on Monday.

Shares of steel company felt the heat of ArcelorMittal’s (NYSE:MT) downbeat outlook. ArcelorMittal’s shares dropped 5.4% after the company said higher costs and a drop in prices would lower its results by as much as one-third. US Steel (NYSE:X) too disappointed with an unexpected loss of $1.21 ex-items, versus expectations of a $0.23 per share profit. Shares in the company fell 3.4% Tuesday.

Leading on the upside, shares of IBM (NYSE:IBM) added 0.6% after the company said its board had authorized a plan to buy back up to $10 billion shares of its common stock. Shares in Ford (NYSE:F) rose 1.5% after the automaker reported earnings of $0.48, well ahead of expectations of $0.38, ex-items. Ford (NYSE:F) also said it is shedding debt at a faster rate than it had earlier planned. Coach (NYSE:COH) shares jumped 12% after reporting a 43% surge in earnings to $0.63, versus expectations of $0.55. The company also said it sees a big holiday season.

Interims are due from such big names as: Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), Teradyne (NYSE:TER), International Paper (NYSE:IP), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) Visa (NYSE:V), and Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR).

Stock Market News for October 27, 2010 – Market News

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