Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Dow Skyrockets on Positive Economic Data

This morning its was reported that consumer confidence rose in May to a five-year high, while home prices rose 11% year over year in March, according to the Case-Shiller index. With housing prices continuing to climb, it's no wonder consumers are more confident about the health of the economy and their livelihood, but the confidence level was much higher than most economist had expected. The index rose to 76.2 in May, leaving both April's reading of 69 and estimates for May of 71 in the dust. 

As of 12:45 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) is up 159 points, or 1.04%. The S&P 500 has risen 0.91%, while the NASDAQ has gained 1.1%%. These huge gains likely indicate that investors have, at least for today, forgotten about the Federal Reserve and the possibility that it may begin slowing down its bond-buying programs in the coming months. Last week that seemed to be the only things on anyone's mind. How weak the market's short-term memory is.

Today's losers
Despite receiving an increased target share price by analysts at Credit Suisse, shares of Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) are down by 1%, making P&G the only Dow component trading in the red at this time. The analysts raised the target price to $85 per share due to the return of ex-CEO A. G. Lafley. But despite the boost of confidence in P&G, traders are taking money off the table after the stock spiked 4% on Friday.

Outside the Dow, shares of Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX  ) are 4% on little news but high volume. The average daily volume for Netflix is 4.3 million shares, but today we have already seen more than 3.7 million shares trade hands. One reason for higher-than-normal volume could be that large institutional shareholders are dumping their positions. Recently, Jana Partners sold its entire position in the company, and after the stock's recent run-up, taking money off the table looks attractive.

Another big loser during this winning session is Exelon (NYSE: EXC  ) , which is down by 7.5% after analysts at Deutsche bank downgraded the stock from buy to hold this morning. The analysts also lowered their price target on the stock to $34 per share. The analysts said the company faces a number of headwinds in the long term.  

More foolish insight
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