Stocks End Mostly Higher – Acadiana Business Index

Stocks ended Thursday’s session mostly higher. Ken Meyers has the latest on what's happening on Wall Street on the Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow closed 33 points higher at 12529. The S&P 500 gained almost 2 points to finish at 1320. The NASDAQ retreated 10 points to end the session at 2839. The NYSE was 4-3 positive on issues. Advancers edged out declining issues on the NASDAQ. NYSE Composite volume totaled over 3.8 billion shares.
• The major averages pared losses to finish mostly higher after Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said a majority of leaders at a summit in Brussels backed a joint European bonds and that Greece is likely to keep the euro. This helped offset some disappointment in today’s economic data.
• Durable goods orders rose 0.2% in April, but declined 0.6% excluding transportation. The weekly initial jobless claims fell 2,000 to 370,000, in-line with consensus expectations.
• Consumer stocks were the best performing sector. Ford gained 18 cents to $10.59 after Moody’s raised the automaker’s credit rating to investment grade. Coca-Cola rose $1.01 to $75.56 following a positive article in Barron’s. Tiffany tumbled $4.21 to $57.59 on the company’s reduced full-year forecast.
• Tech underperformed as declines NettApp and VMware offset a gain in Hewlett-Packard. NettApp shed $4.03 to $28.81 after lowering its outlook. VMware fell $6.09 to $95.43 after warning growth could slow due to increased competition. Hewlett-Packard advanced 69 cents to $21.77 after the company beat analyst projections and announced job cuts.
• The 10-year note finished down 5/16 to yield 1.77%.

For the complete report, click Ken's Market Report.