Consumer Confidence Report Boosts Stocks

  • January 30, 2007
  • Darren Wong


The U.S. stock markets
continue to see some strength in mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday,
although buying interest has waned from earlier in the session.
Strength among resource stocks is helping to keep the major
averages in the green.

After ending the previous
session in negative territory, the price of gold regained some
ground during trading on Tuesday. Gold for February delivery
closed up $1 at $644.20 an ounce after ending Monday’s trading
down $1.50 an ounce.

The increase by the price of
gold came amid a substantial increase by the price of oil, which
inspired some traders to move their money into the safe haven of
gold. The price of oil has risen more than $2 a barrel to close at
$56.92.



Stocks in
Motion

Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Declines 58% On
Charges, Dip In Zocor Sales; EPS Matches View; Guides FY07 (full
story).  MRK shares fall by 0.6%.

Colgate-Palmolive
(
CL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Rises On
Higher Revenues, Margins (full
story).  CL shares finish higher by 1%.

JetBlue Airways
(
JBLU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Posts Q4 Profit
On Higher Revenues; EPS Misses View; Guides Q1, FY07; Stock Down (full
story).  JBLU shares drop 4.4%.

U.S. Steel
(
X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Surges, EPS Tops Consensus;
Says Q1 Results Will Be Lower Than Those Of Q4 (full
story).  X shares gain 4.4%.


Procter & Gamble
(
PG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q2 Profit Up 12%, EPS Rises 17%
And Tops Estimate By A Penny; Lifts FY07 EPS Forecast, Shares Fall As Q3 EPS
Outlook Below Analysts’ View (full
story).  PG shares lose 0.5%.


3M
(
MMM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Surges 58% On One-time Gain, 9%
Sales Growth; Guides FY07 EPS (full
story).  MMM shares finish lower by 5%.

Countrywide Financial
(
CFC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit
Declines 3%; Projects A “challenging” Year In 2007 (full
story).  CFC shares rise by 0.5%.


United Parcel Service
(
UPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Increases, EPS
Matches Consensus; Guides Q1; Provides FY07 Outlook Below Street View (full
story).  UPS shares lose 2.5%.

For more stories as they happen, go to our
Breaking News section.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +32.53 12,523.31

NASDAQ

 +7.55 2,448.64

S&P 500

 +8.20 1,428.82

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,605,932,000 1,754,682,000

Advances

 2168 1794

Declines

 1120 1250

Up Volume

 1615 1063

Down Volume

 759 572

New Highs

 191 157

New Lows

 18 38



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
Amex Natural Gas (XNG) Amex Airline Index (XAL)
Deutsche Bank Energy (DXE) S&P Chemicals Index (CEX)
CBOE Oil Index (OIX) Nasdaq Transportation Index (TRANX)


Economic
News

Consumer Confidence 110.3 vs 110.0 Consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com