STOCKS SURGE AGAIN, DOW JUMPS 128: Here's What You Need To Know
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
U.S. President Barack Obama smiles as he arrives to speak to workers at the Alcoa Davenport Works Factory in Bettendorf, Iowa, June 28, 2011.
A big shake-up is coming to the Dow.
First, the scoreboard:
Dow: 15,191.0, +127.9, +0.8 %
S&P 500: 1,683.9, +12.2, +0.7%
NASDAQ: 3,729.0, +22.8, +0.6%
And now the top stories:
An hour before the opening bell, we learned that Goldman Sachs, Nike, and Visa would be added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average replacing Alcoa, Hewlett-Packard, and Bank of America. The changes will become effective on September 23. But people are already pointing out problems.
Apple announced new products today. The ones attracting the most attention were the iPhone 5S — a faster iPhone with a fingerprint scanner — and the iPhone 5C — a cheaper iPhone with multiple color plastic casings. However, Apple shares tumbled after management announced the 5C would cost $549 off contract, a price that was higher than expected.
The NFIB small business optimism index fell 0.1 point to 94.0 in August. However, the job creation plans sub-index surged. "This is the largest monthly gain and the highest reading in this series since January 2007, a month which experienced nonfarm payrolls gains of +234k and private payroll gains of +227k," said Deutsche Bank's Joe LaVorgna. "This suggests to us that either August nonfarm payrolls will be revised higher or that we will see a noticeable improvement in nonfarm payrolls this month or sometime very soon."
According to the BLS's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, job openings were basically unchanged at 3.7 million. The number of quits continues to be much higher than layoffs and discharges, a sign of confidence among workers.
"Risk appetite remains supported for now as economic data continue to come in strong," said Morgan Stanley's Hans Redeker this morning. "The Syria conflict poses less of a threat to risk than it did a couple of weeks ago."
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