2017-07-26 16:47:03 | On The Fly: Top stock stories for WednesdayStocks opened in positive territory and remained there throughout the day. The bulk of the move up in the Dow was due to Boeing (BA), which surged about 10% higher after earnings. The move was also supported by the Fed, which kept rates unchanged while also saying they would soon begin to pare the central bank's balance sheet. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., new home sales edged up 0.8% to a 610,000 rate in June. In central bank news, the U.S. Federal Reserve left the benchmark interest rate unchanged and said that it sees balance sheet normalization "relatively soon." COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Boeing led the Dow after the plane maker reported better than expected quarterly profits and raised its view for core earnings for the fiscal year... Fellow Dow member Coca Cola (KO) also posted better than expected earnings despite flat unit case volume, with its best performance coming from its juice, dairy, and plant-based beverages. The beverage giant, which also announced the rebranding of "Coca-Cola Zero" as "Coca-Cola Zero Sugar" this morning, saw its shares rise a bit over 1%... Among other big name earnings reporters last night and this morning, AT&T (T), AMD (AMD) and Texas Instruments (TXN) all traded higher, while Corning (GLW), General Dynamics (GD) and Amgen (AMGN) declined... In a surprise move, Whole Foods Market (WFM) released its quarterly earnings report in the middle of trading, reporting better than expected adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter. The company noted that, as a result of its proposed acquisition by Amazon.com (AMZN) for $42 per share in cash, it would not be updating its outlook for fiscal 2017 or longer-term targets and would not host a quarterly results conference call. Shares of Whole Foods closed up 0.1% at $41.81. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was iRobot (IRBT), which jumped over 21% after it reported Q2 earnings, raised guidance for 2017 and announced an agreement to acquire its largest European distributor, privately-held Robopolis. Among the noteworthy losers were several home health services providers, which slipped after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, issued a proposed rule that would update the 2018 Medicare payment rates and restructure its reimbursement system in 2019. Following the proposal, Amedisys (AMED) dropped 18%, Kindred Healthcare (KND) fell nearly 15%, Almost Family (AFAM) slid about 14%, and HealthSouth (HLS) slipped more than 5%. INDEXES: The Dow rose 97.58, or 0.45%, to 21,711.01, the Nasdaq gained 10.57, or 0.16%, to 6,422.75, and the S&P 500 added 0.70, or 0.03%, to 2,477.83. | |
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