The slump is behind us — though the overall downtrend might not be.
After suffering through five straight days of losses, the markets finally rallied back Wednesday with uniform 0.7% gains for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrials, and a 0.85% gain for the Nasdaq.
Whether you can thank Alcoa (NYSE:AA) is up for debate.
The aluminum giant once again signaled the ceremonial start of earnings season after the bell Tuesday, and its first-quarter report went swimmingly. Adjusted earnings of 10 cents per share beat analyst expectations for a 3-cent loss, and the company’s forecasts were promising. Investors took AA shares more than 6% higher, and the market in general might have been reminded of the positive power of increasing earnings.
Of course, on the other side of the coin, equities had been taking their longest beating of the year and might have been due to bounce back. And the markets’ 4%-plus pullback isn’t close to the typical size of a bull market pullback, so the day might have been more reprieve than rebound.
Still, few were complaining Wednesday. Financials were up across the board, including strong gains by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC, +3.75%) and Citigroup (NYSE:C, +2.2%). JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM, +2.4%) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC, +2.1%) also were up, with two days to go before their own earnings reports, due out Friday morning.
Online travel site Travelzoo (NASDAQ:TZOO) was on a scorching run Wednesday — not on general market optimism, but on reports that the company is for sale. Reuters reported that Travelzoo, a competitor of Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) and Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE) has sought an adviser and is looking to sell the company, which primarily deals with travel and entertainment deals but also recently entered the daily-deals business.
The news sent TZOO shares up almost 30% to $27.06, helping to reverse a 15% year-to-date loss through the end of Tuesday trading. TZOO now is up about 10% YTD.
Three Up
- Titan Machinery (NASDAQ:TITN): Up 16.7% ($4.58) to $32.05.
- Dryships (NASDAQ:DRYS): Up 9.6% (28 cents) to $3.19.
- PulteGroup (NYSE:PHM): Up 9.1% (70 cents) to $8.39.
Three Down
- Nokia (NYSE:NOK): Down 15.7% (79 cents) to $4.24. (Read more about Nokia’s loss here.)
- Molycorp (NYSE:MCP): Down 3.9% ($1.27) to $31.68.
- Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK): Down 3% (61 cents) to $20.08.
Kyle Woodley is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Check out recaps from previous trading days here.
