After Market: S&P 500 Joins the Round-Number Milestone Party

Date: Nov 22 2013

Filed under: Earnings, Market News, Mergers & Acquisitions, Stocks, Investing

It was the S&P 500’s turn to close at a milestone level, and a big deal may be brewing the cable industry. The Dow topped 16,000 on Thursday, but Friday, it shared the spotlight with the S&P 500, which closed above 1,800 for the first time.

Most U.S. Stocks Decline as Dow Average Briefly Surpasses 16,000
Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) gained nearly 55 points on the day, to complete its seventh straight weekly gain. The S&P 500 (^GPSC) rose 9 points Friday, and the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC) added 22.

Time Warner Cable (TWC) jumped 10 percent, following a Wall Street Journal report that its much smaller rival, Charter Communications (CHTR), is nearing a deal to borrow enough money to make a bid for the cable company. Charter gained 5.5 percent, and other cable and satellite companies followed it upward. Cablevision (CVC) rose 6 percent and DirecTV (DTV) added 3 percent.

A big gainer in the drug sector was ARIAD Pharmaceuticals (ARIA), which soared 35 percent after European regulators said the company could continue to sell a cancer drug that the FDA rejected. But — and this is a big but — Ariad stock has lost nearly 80 percent of its value over the past 3 months, due largely to that FDA decision last month.

Biogen Idec (BIIB) jumped 13 percent after winning a decade of market exclusivity in Europe for its new multiple sclerosis treatment.

Some retailers continued to struggle. Gap (GPS) fell 1 percent on a disappointing earnings outlook. Target (TGT), J.C. Penney (JCP) and TJX (TJX) also fell.

And another discounter warns investors the holiday season won’t have much ho-ho-ho in its sales stocking. Ross Stores forecast results for the current quarter that fell short of expectations. Its shares lost 5 percent.

Other Big Movers Included:

  • Intel (INTC), down 5 percent after forecasting flat sales for next year.
  • Data analytics firm Splunk (SPLK) rallied 22 percent as revenue soared.

What to Watch Monday:

  • The National Association of Realtors releases pending home sales for October at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
  • The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas releases its manufacturing survey for November at 10:30 a.m.

–Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.

 

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