Earnings season is in full swing, and the markets started off the April 23 trading day with a bang on the previous day’s reporting form the world’s largest company. Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) April 22 earnings call led an up day for the market, countering a slightly disappointing earnings report from fellow tech giant Facebook Inc. (FB) .
While Apple beat earnings expectations handily, the most exciting news came in the form of a triumvirate of significant changes concerning their stock. Apple announced they would both be upping the dividend while buying back 7 percent of existing shares. At the same time, the company revealed plans to split the stock down in early June in a bid to entice retail investors. The move sent the world’s largest company up 8 percent by the end of the day. This more than countered the earnings call from Facebook, who beat earnings. After initially gapping to nearly $64 a share, heavy selling sent shares back down, causing the social media behemoth to end the day down .80 percent, on double normal volume.
An after the bell earnings call from Amazon that revealed the company beat expectations did not factor into the day’s movement.
Aside from tech’s gains, the rest of the market was a mixed bag. The S&P gained, but was kept in check by big down days from Xilinx Inc. (XLNX) and Helmerich & Payne (HP) . The Dow was perfectly flat, with stronger than expected earnings from Caterpillar (CAT) tempered by a 2.42 percent drop from Verizon (VZ) , who saw wireless subscriber growth drop 20 percent.
Results for April 23, 2014
- Standard & Poor’s 500: +.19 percent to 1,879 points
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: Flat to remain at 16,502 points
- NASDAQ Exchange: +.51 percent to 4,148 points
Our Top Stories
- With news of Apple’s split dominating headlines, Senior Editor Joel Anderson takes a look at what a stock split is, why companies split their stock, and the advantages and disadvantages that occur from doing so.
- As Facebook struggles to maintain their growth stock status while remaining utterly massive, we examine how the company is taking a cue from old media in learning how to tailor their content.
- A former VP from Mobil has voiced his grave misgivings concerning the controversial oil extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing.
- Forex expert Winsor Hoang advises currency traders to accept that losses are a part of trading and to quit looking for the “Holy Grail.”
- Contributor Tim Melvin advises investors to keep a cool head during earnings season, when inexperienced traders start to overtrade and chase hot stocks.
Stocks
- Here’s a roundup of the first quarter’s best performers from the Equities.com Small-Cap Stars Research project, one of whom saw gains of over 350 percent in Q1.
- Speaking of Small-Cap Stars, here’s a preview of the upcoming earnings reports from materials stocks in that index hand-picked by the Equities.com research team.
- The Life Sciences Report talks to Aegis analyst Raghuram "Ram" Selvaraju the popularity of biotech stocks, particularly those working on treatments for rare diseases.
