US Stocks Bounce From Small Gains To Losses As Investors Eye Europe, Earnings
October 11 2011 - 1:58PM
Dow Jones News
U.S. stocks bounced between small gains and losses Tuesday, a
day after blue-chip stocks posted their biggest gain in two
months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 35 points, or 0.3%, to
11398 in recent action, following a 330-point surge Monday. Stocks
had opened in negative territory Tuesday as investors cautiously
awaited a key euro-zone bailout-fund vote in Slovakia, the 17th and
final euro-zone country to act on an expansion of the fund. The
country's parliament was expected to reject the plan, though
legislative proceedings were ongoing as of Tuesday afternoon. The
Slovakian finance minister said he expects it to pass some time
this week.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index lost a point to 1194
in recent action, while the Nasdaq Composite added 7 points, or
0.3%, to 2574.
"Political votes are always the hardest things in the markets to
forecast," said Michael Purves, chief market strategist at BGC
Financial. "It's one thing to get your sense on Alcoa's earnings.
It's quite another to take a good guess at the political process of
this country, or any country."
Technology stocks led S&P 500 gainers, while utilities,
viewed as a defensive sector, were the broad measure's worst
performers.
Alcoa, which unofficially kicks off the third-quarter earnings
season after the closing bell, gained 2.5% to lead blue-chip
advancers. Bank of America, one of the financial stocks that
suffers when euro-zone-debt worries strike the market, was another
relatively strong performer, gaining 1%.
"The news in Europe has distracted investors," said David
Keator, a partner at the Keator Group. "It seems that the market
has totally dismissed what's going on with corporations. [Investors
are] pricing in a heavy probability of a recession. The data
doesn't support that."
In corporate news, budget retailer 99 Cents Only agreed to be
taken private by private-equity firm Ares Management LLC and the
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, for $1.6 billion. Shares
added 4.4%.
Dollar Thrifty lost 2.2%. The car-rental company has decided to
remain an independent company, a year and a half after first
reaching a deal to be acquired by rival Hertz. Hertz's shares
gained 4.2%.
AMR Corp.'s American Airlines said it will cut its
fourth-quarter mainline capacity by about 3% in response to high
fuel prices and growing economic uncertainty, a move some analysts
said would help support prices for plane tickets. Shares gained
7.9%.
Technology company Mistras Group's fiscal first-quarter profit
more than doubled, helping shares gain 1.5%.
Netflix fell 5.2% and was the S&P 500's weakest stock. The
company said Monday it was abandoning a plan to separate its
DVD-rental and video-streaming businesses.
-By Brendan Conway, Dow Jones Newswires; (212) 416-2670;
brendan.conway@dowjones.com
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