Stocks Continue to Rise; IBM Approves $15B Buyback, Google Drops

Stocks rallied for the third consecutive day, boosted by $15 billion stock buyback at International Business Machines
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. The Dow gained +114.70, the S&P 500 +9.49, and the Nasdaq Composite +17.51.

Google
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dropped more than 4% after comScore reported the number of people clicking its search ads declined January (read more).

AutoZone
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rose on Tuesday, after the company beat Q2 2008 estimates (read more).

Home Depot
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reported a 27% decline in Q4 2007 earnings, contributing to the first annual sales decline for the world’s largest home improvement store chain (read more).

Shares of Target
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rose, despite the company reporting Q4 2007 earnings of $1.23 a share, down from a year-ago profit of $1.29 a share (read more).

Macy’s
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reported higher Q4 2007 net income than a year ago, beating estimates and provided guidance for full-year 2008 (read more).

Market Snapshot

Dow

+114.70 12684.92

NASDAQ

+17.51 2344.99

S&P 500

+9.49 1381.29

Economic
News

PPI (Jan): Actual 1.0%, Consensus 0.4%

Core PPI (Jan): Actual 0.4%, Consensus 0.2%

Consumer Confidence (Feb): Actual 75.0, Consensus 82.0