GE Rises; Leno Flops: Dow Watch
NEW YORK (
) -- Even if Jay Leno didn't live up the hype Monday,
General Electric
(GE) - Get Report
was doing its part Tuesday to buoy the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
.
The blue-chip average was lately up 60 points to 9686, thanks to a 3.7% advance in shares of GE, which will hold an analyst meeting later this week. On Monday, GE shares popped after Goldman Sachs reiterated a buy rating and $18 price target for the stock ahead of the meeting.
Unfortunately for Leno, that stock's rise isn't a reflection of the reviews of his new show, which debuted Monday night. Following an endless round of promotions (I think I saw 206 ads for it during Sunday Night Football on NBC, and that was
before
the painful interview Leno gave to Bob Costas),
critics panned the new show as a rehash
.
"This is the future of television?" wrote
Los Angeles Times
columnist Mary McNamara. "This wasn't even a good rendition of television past." Ouch. The Neilsen ratings won't come until later, but for now, GE shares are unaffected by the weak start to one of its most-hyped new shows.
The gain in GE shares, along with the 6.4% and 4.8% climb in
Alcoa
(AA) - Get Report
and
Caterpillar
(CAT) - Get Report
shares, respectively, have pushed the Dow higher to its best mark of 2009.
Aside from those stocks, several factors were contributing to the Dow's gain Tuesday.
came in better than economists had expected. Additionally,
Federal Reserve
Chairman
asserted that the recession "is very likely over at this point."
And what a way we have come since the start of the recession. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the significance of the Sept. 15 date. For all the hoopla over the anniversary of
collapse, what seems to be lost in the mix is that the Dow is only 11% lower from year-ago levels.
On the day of Lehman's collapse, the stock market suffered its biggest daily point drop since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. After that 504-point plunge on the Dow, as well as the massive shock to the world's financial system, it would have been hard to imagine the Dow would be down "only" 1276 points. Now, we're in the midst of a sharp rally that has seen the Dow rocket higher by 3100 points, or 47%, since the lows it hit on March 9.
If anything, this has been one wild year for the blue-chip stocks. Even the composition of the Dow has gone through dramatic changes in the past year, with
American International Group
(AIG) - Get Report
,
General Motors
and
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
getting dumped for
Kraft Foods
(KFT)
,
Cisco Systems
(CSCO) - Get Report
and
Travelers Companies
(TRV) - Get Report
.
What a long strange trip it's been, indeed.
-- Written by Robert Holmes in New York
.
