Some strong earnings reports and continued weakness in the dollar has helped boost stocks this morning. With the combined gains from yesterday and today, the Dow Industrials has now recovered all of its heavy losses from Tuesday.
In fact, the blue chip index briefly surpassed its April closing high of 11,205.03 in the first hour of trading today. If the Dow manages to close above that level today, it will be its highest close since the middle of September 2008 – essentially since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.
Some strong earnings reports and continued weakness in the dollar has helped boost stocks this morning. With the combined gains from yesterday and today, the Dow Industrials has now recovered all of its heavy losses from Tuesday.
In fact, the blue chip index briefly surpassed its April closing high of 11,205.03 in the first hour of trading today. If the Dow manages to close above that level today, it will be its highest close since the middle of September 2008 – essentially since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.
Pushing the Dow higher today are 7 stocks that are hitting new 52-week highs: Chevron (CVX), DuPont (DD), Kraft Foods (KFT), Coca-Cola (KO), McDonald’s (MCD), 3M (MMM), and Travelers (TRV).
Since Lehman went bankrupt a little over 2 years ago, just under half (14/30) of the Dow’s 30 components have posted gains. 3M tops the list, but is then followed by 3 companies which all posted very strong quarterly earnings today (McDonald’s, Travelers, Caterpillar).
Here’s how the rest of the Dow 30 have fared since Lehman’s bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.
Meanwhile, even though the Dow is sitting at 2 year highs, the S&P is still down about 5 percent since Lehman’s bankruptcy. Furthermore, just a mere 2 of the S&P 500’s 10 sectors (Tech and Consumer Discretionary) are in positive territory in that time.
Take a look at the major indices and sectors since Lehman’s bankruptcy.
Take a look at the major indices and sectors since Lehman’s bankruptcy.
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