Today’s Results
? Standard & Poor’s 500: +0.05 percent to 1,878.04
? Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.19 percent to 16,452.72
? NASDAQ: -0.37 percent to 4,336.22
Stocks on Wall Street mostly recovered from a late session downturn in Friday trading, as much better than expected jobs data for the month of February provided some moral support to the benchmark S&P 500 and Dow with both nudging into the positive ahead of the closing bell. Investors anxiety was the result of ongoing developments in the conflict Russia-Ukraine conflict. Though direct military action seemed far less likely than it had even two days ago, Russian energy giant Gazprom’s threat to shut off the natural gas pipeline altogether unless its financially cripple neighbor immediately pay $2 billion it already owes set tensions between the two countries back on the path of escalation.
Our Top Stories
? S&P Capital IQ’s Sam Stovall puts the recent political and economic events into perspective for anxious bulls in our weekly interview.
? Equities.com telecom analyst Jeff Kagan discusses the prospects of a turnaround for electronics retailer Radio Shack (RSH) in the wake of the company’s announcement that it would be closing one fifth of its stores in order to cut costs.
? Resident IPO expert Francis Gaskins assesses the prospects for the debut of online coupon firm Coupons.com ($COUP).
? Dara Albright has an excellent interview with Sam Guzik of Richardson Patel LLP about how the new “Crowdfunding Plus” could help small-caps raise cash.
? Senior Editor Jacob Harper offers this piece about media personalities who quit their jobs in disgust, and while still on air.
? Senior Editor Michael Teague on producer Alpha Natural Resources’ (ANR) poor friday performance after the stock was downgraded.
? Senior Editor Joel Anderson has the story behind the 10 percent gains on the day for Small-Cap independent oil and gas producer Callon Petroleum (CPE) .
On the S&P 500
Safeway Inc. (SWY) shed more than 2 percent on heavy trading after the company stepped away from the proposed merger deal with rival grocery chain Kroger (KR) . The index was weighed down however by techs and materials stocks, both of which were rattled by news of the first ever bond default to emerge directly from Chinese financial markets. Metals producers in particular sank ont he news, with Peabody Energy (BTU) and Freeport-McMoran (FCX) shedding about 5 percent each on volume.
On the Dow
Nike Inc. (NKE) lead the dow into positive territory on gains of 1.6 percent, followed closely by oil giantExxonMobil (XOM) . The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) was on the opposite end of the index, as the stock cooled off by 1.36 percent after a week of otherwise impressive performance.
On the NASDAQ
Battery-maker Plug Power Inc. (PLUG) posted another tremendous day with shares advancing another 30 percent by the closing bell, meaning that the alternative energy company nearly doubled its market share over the week of trading activity. FuelCell Energy (FCEL) has been a beneficiary of Plug Power’s impressive gains and closed Friday another 18 percent higher.
Meanwhile, the NASDAQ was pulled lower by tech stocks. notably Pixelworks Inc. (PXLW) whose shares lost almost a quarter of their value by the closing bell. Software firm FireEye Inc (FEYE) was nearly 10 percent lower as well, with Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) trading down as well.
