9:00am (EST)
The bulls rolled out the red carpet after the bell on Thursday as a number of companies were set to report earnings. Despite the high profile events, the market moved higher as Tech once again led the way.
The Dow gained 46 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 12,625. The blue-chips closed on their highs for the day which opens the door for a test up to 12,800 as the index ended above our near-term 12,600 target.
The S&P added a 6-pack, or 0.5%, to settle at 1,315. The index managed to stay in the green all day after testing the breakeven level shortly after the open. We said there could be fluff up to 1,325-1,350 on the close above 1,300 which would be nice for the bulls to hold going into the weekend.
The Nasdaq jumped 18 points, or 0.7%, and ended at 2,788. Tech made a run at our 2,800 target but fell short after kissing a high of 2,793.
Yesterday’s news is actually today’s headlines as we have a ton of stocks in play ahead of the open. Most noticeably, Google (GOOG, $639.57, up $6.66) shares are down a whopping 10% (like we predicted) after the company missed Wall Street’s estimates. It seems the gains on Thursday ($6.66) were a sign of bad things to come.
Google was down over $60 at one-point last night in extended trading and in pre-market action, shares are down $50 to $590.
Elsewhere in pre-market trading, Intel (INTC, $25.63, up $0.24) is up 2% after they beat estimates and offered in-line guidance for the current quarter. International Business Machines (IBM, $180.52, down $0.55) is trading higher to $185 despite missing analysts’ revenue targets but did up guidance going forward.
And finally, Microsoft (MSFT, $28.12, down $0.11) is pushing $29 after reporting a profit of $6.6 billion, or $0.78 a share, on revenue of $20.9 billion for the quarter. This was slightly below last year’s showing of $0.77 a share on sales of $19.95 billion for the quarter, but slightly ahead of the 76 cents the suit-and-ties had penciled in.
Shares of Microsoft are at $28.77, up $0.65, ahead of the bell. We currently have open trades on this name so look for possible Profit Alerts if we take action. We have a $35 price target on Microsoft by summertime but we want to take advantage of today’s possible pop to lock in profits on our February call options.
Futures are pointing towards a mixed open and look like this: Dow (-16), S&P (-3), Nasdaq (flat).
We also have some other current open trades that we may take action on this morning and we have raised the HARD STOPS for a few of them in case there is a pullback. With the weekend here, we may lock-in some triple-digit profits! Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates and stay locked-and-loaded.
