Dow Biggest Weekly Percentage Gain Since Jan 2013
Bareksa • 09 Feb 2015
The Dow rose 3.8 percent for the week, putting the index into positive territory for the year. (Bobbi Rebell/Reuters)
The January jobs report came in better-than-forecasts
Bareksa.com - It was a strong week on Wall Street for stocks pushing the Dow and the Nasdaq into positive territory for this year. The wage gains seen in the December jobs report initially led investors to buy stocks, but shares gave up their gains in the afternoon, sending stocks lower on Friday.
Employers added more jobs than expected and gave workers fatter paychecks. And the unemployment rate ticked higher, but for a good reason: more unemployed workers went searching for jobs. But Fact and Opinion Economics' chief economist Bob Brusca isn't convinced that the economy can maintain its momentum.
SOUNDBITE: ROBERT BRUSCA, CHIEF ECONOMIST, FAO ECONOMICS (ENGLISH) SAYING:
"I'm more concerned of where we go next. We've got a damaged energy sector, a strong dollar. We could see this job growth begin to slow down."
GoPro going low. Shares of the action camera maker dropped after it issued a profit forecast that could miss analysts estimates. And its chief operating officer will soon leave the company.
A dozen analysts hiked their price targets on Twitter after the microblogging company's profit and revenue targets were stronger than expected. User growth, though, slowed in the latest quarter but gained steam so far this year. Twitter's shares soared.
A number of analysts also raising targets on LinkedIn. The business networking site saw its quarterly revenue grow 44 percent. Fast expansion in China and other overseas markets helped boost its hiring business.
But Pandora Media rained on the social media parade. Its forecast for the current quarter was lower than expected.
A marriage in the military sector: Defense contractor Harris is buying Exelis for about $4.8 billion. Harris was the top performer on the S&P 500.
The worst performer on that index: Expedia. Quarterly profit at the online travel agency plummeted and widely missed estimates. Hurt by the strong dollar and intense Chinese competition, Expedia warned that revenue growth could slow this year.
In Europe, shares touched a seven-year high on the strong U.S. jobs data, but the major country indexes lost steam and closed lower. (Source: Reuters)