Thursday, April 03, 2008
On Thursday, investors took a break from worrying about big picture stuff involving the health of the U.S. economy and instead focused on stock-specific stories, from stellar individual earnings to takeover rumours to plain old rebounds.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,626.03, up 20.2 points or 0.2 per cent. Alcoa Inc. rose 5.8 per cent after the aluminum producer was the subject of takeover speculation. Merck [amp]amp; Co. Inc., which had been hammered earlier in the week, rose 3.4 per cent after investors bet that it had been punished too severely. And General Motors Corp. rose 3 per cent after CSM Worldwide forecast that U.S. auto sales would recover slowly but steadily in 2009 – a welcome relief for anyone fearing the sector was doomed forever.
The broader S[amp]amp;P 500 closed at 1369.31, up 1.78 points or 0.1 per cent. Schering-Plough Corp. which had been battered along with Merck [amp]amp; Co. rebounded 11 per cent, and Ford Motor Co. rose 5.4 per cent. On the downside, Cisco Systems Inc. fell 2.9 per cent.
In Canada, the S+P/TSX composite index closed at 13,551.29, up 37.15 points or 0.3 per cent. But you can pin the gains on two big movers: Research In Motion Ltd. and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan together contributed 41 points. Meanwhile, Bombardier Inc. rose 6.3 per cent after its strong earnings were released in the morning and BCE Inc. rose 1.5 per cent.
