Investors and the stock market managed to fend off fears over the direction of European policies and markets after this weekend’s elections in Greece and France, staging an afternoon rally to finish mixed.
Worries that new governments in Greece and France will move away from current austerity measures set the markets back in early trading; however, European markets rallied during the day, setting the stage for the market recovery. The Dow recovered to finish down marginally at 13,027, the Nasdaq gained 0.24% to finish at 2,963, and the S&P ended up 0.18% to 1,371.
On the domestic front, shares of bailed-out insurer AIG (NYSE:AIG) fell 3.6% after the Treasury Department announced that it was planning to sell 163.9 million shares for $30.50 each.
DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) also fell Monday, shedding 1.2% after announcing that its net income plunged to $360 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to $549 million in the year-ago quarter.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) announced another dividend hike, the company’s third increase in an 18-month period — however, investors were nonplussed, and INTC actually lost less than a percent.
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) once again claimed the top spot in the Fortune 500 list, taking over from Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT). Exxon is riding high on increases in their natural gas operations, and profit soared during 2011 to $41 billion on $452 billion in revenues. Again, the news did little for investors, and XOM finished down marginally.
Investor Carl Icahn led a successful purchase of CVR Energy (NYSE:CVI) as shareholders overwhelmingly approved his plan to overhaul the petroleum refining and marketing company for $30 a share, plus a contingent value right.
Facebook announced it was working on a plan to allow retail investors an opportunity to purchase shares in their upcoming IPO through online brokers, at the same time opening up the number of shares available.
Tomorrow’s notable earnings reports include DirectTV (NASDAQ:DTV), OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX), and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS).
Three Up
- Synacor (NASDAQ:SYNC): Up 15% ($1.71) to $13.10.
- United Continental (NYSE:UAL): Up 5.9% ($1.31) to $23.59.
- Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN): Up 4.9% (49 cents) to $10.46.
Three Down
- Broadsoft (NASDAQ:BSFT): Down 18.9% ($7.74) to $33.15.
- Tempur-Pedic (NYSE:TPX): Down 14.9% ($8.42) to $48.29.
- Weight Watchers (NYSE:WTW): Down 4.4% ($2.72) to $59.46.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long XOM and INTC.
