PortfolioCrafter - Market Commentary 7/26/05
July 26th, 2005 / 9:46 pm / by portfoliocrafter
Today, it was a mixed day for the market. The Dow rose 16.71 points, to close at 10,579.77. However, the Nasdaq rose 9.25 points, to close at 2,175.99. And, the S&P increased 2.13 points, to close at 1,231.16. The decline in the U.S stock market was probably caused by the negative impact of the news about the July consumer-confidence results.
Also, shares of DuPont Co. were responsible to drag the Dow down, due to a lower-than-expected 2005 profit forecast. Nevertheless, Texas Instruments added $1.70 to $32.30, which surpassed any forecasts. The company also raised its quarterly dividend 20 percent to 3 cents per share, and also announced that it will buy back an additional $2 billion of stock.
During after-hours trading, shares of Amazon.com rose to $41.50, after the company announced that it earned 12 cents per share on quarterly sales that rose to $1.75 billion. These results exceeded analysts’ forecasts that expected the company to earn 10 cents per share. However, Infospace Inc. shares fell about 34 percent to close at $22.98, after the company announced that its second quarter profit climbed 21 percent on its revenue, but cut its outlook for the year, and fell short of expectations.
Crude-oil futures closed higher today by 20 cents to close at $59.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Also, heating oil closed at $1.6958 a gallon, which shows a decrease of 0.29 cents. And, August unleaded gasoline lost 1.06 cents to end at $1.6958 a gallon. The Energy Department said will release petroleum supply data covering the week ended July 22 tomorrow morning.
All the best,
Manuel Jesus-Backus
The Portfolio Crafter
