Dow Nears 12,000
Chris Nichols
10/16/06 - 04:50 PM EDT
Updated from 4:16 p.m. EDT
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average came up just short of crossing the 12,000 mark Monday for the first time in its history, but the index still set another all-time closing high.
When trading was done for the day, the Dow had collected a gain of 20.09 points, or 0.17%, to 11,980.60. Of the 30 stocks that make up the industrials, 17 were in positive territory, led by
Alcoa (AA Quote) and
Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote), both up more than 2%.
AT&T (T Quote) and
Home Depot (HD Quote) were the primary laggards.
About 2.35 billion shares traded on the
New York Stock Exchange, and on the Nasdaq 1.88 billion shares changed hands. Winners beat losers roughly 2 to 1.
Meanwhile, the
S&P 500 added 3.43 points, or 0.25%, to 1369.05, and the
Nasdaq Composite tacked on 6.55 points, or 0.28%, at 2363.84.
Earnings season began in earnest this week, and among the companies with results was
Mattel (MAT Quote). The toymaker exceeded analysts' third-quarter earnings estimates and said a stock option probe found errors, but that they weren't material.
Mattel earned $239 million, or 62 cents a share, for the quarter, up from $225 million, or 55 cents a share, a year ago. Sales rose 7% to $1.79 billion. Shares of Mattel gained 2.9% to $21.30.
At
Philips Electronics (PHG Quote), profits rose sharply to $5.3 billion following a big gain from the sale of a majority interest in its chip unit. Revenue ticked up to just under $8 billion. Philips slipped 0.9% to $34.71.
To view Gregg Greenberg's video take on today's market, click here.
Wachovia (WB Quote) made $1.88 billion, or $1.17 a share, for the latest quarter, up from last year's $1.66 billion, or $1.06 a share. Excluding merger costs, earnings were $1.19 a share, in line with the Thomson Financial estimate. Wachovia fell 2.2% to $55.25.
Specialist firm
LaBranche (LAB Quote) reported third-quarter earnings of $7.8 million, or 13 cents a share, down from $9.2 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 50% to $125.4 million. Analysts were looking for earnings of 11 cents a share. The stock dropped nearly 18% to $9.07.
Away from earnings,
Oshkosh (OSK Quote) said it would acquire building-equipment maker
JLG (JLG Quote) for around $3 billion, and
UnitedHealth (UNH Quote) said William McGuire is stepping down as chairman and chief executive. McGuire left Sunday as chairman, and he will resign from the CEO post by Dec. 1.
On the research front, Goldman Sachs upgraded
Lowes (LOW Quote), and ThinkEquity cut its rating and price target on
Amazon.com (AMZN Quote).
Prudential initiated coverage of
Dell (DELL Quote) with an overweight rating, and
Home Depot (HD Quote) was downgraded at Goldman to neutral from buy.
Crude prices rose $1.37 to $59.94 a barrel following word that OPEC would gather this week to talk about production quotas. Other energy futures were higher.
Treasuries were little changed or slightly higher. The benchmark 10-year note was adding 4/32 in price to yield 4.78%, and the dollar was mixed against other major currencies.
Stocks advanced overseas. London's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 6172, and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX added 0.2% to 6187. Tokyo's Nikkei rose 0.9% to 16,693, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.1% to 18,010.
