Dow Today: JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Leads The Day Higher, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Lags

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) closed down 9.0 points at 13,973. During the day, 593.2 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 619.1 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio closed at 1,503 issues advancing vs. 1,488 declining with 125 unchanged.

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The Dow component that led the way higher today was JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), which sported a 54-cent gain (+1.1%) bringing the stock to $49.22. Volume for JPMorgan Chase ended the day at 17.9 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 22.9 million shares.

JPMorgan Chase has a market cap of $186.8 billion and is part of the financial sector and banking industry. Shares are up 11.8% year to date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.4%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., a financial holding company, provides various financial services worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.4, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates JPMorgan Chase as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, increase in net income, revenue growth and attractive valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

• You can view the full JPMorgan Chase Ratings Report.

Holding the Dow back today was Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE:WMT), which lagged the broader Dow index with a 56-cent decline (-0.8%) bringing the stock to $70.82. This single loss lowered the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 4.31 points or roughly accounting for 47.9% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Wal-Mart Stores ended the day at 6.8 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 8.6 million shares.

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Wal-Mart Stores has a market cap of $238.85 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 4.6% year to date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.2%.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates retail stores in various formats worldwide. It operates retail stores, restaurants, discount stores, supermarkets, supercenters, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, apparel stores, Sam's Clubs, and neighborhood markets, as well as walmart.com; and samsclub.com. The company has a P/E ratio of 14.7, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Wal-Mart Stores as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, revenue growth, increase in net income and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.

• You can view the full Wal-Mart Stores Ratings Report.

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