U.S. stocks inched higher today with Dow index gaining the most among three major indexes as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy statement and a statement from the European Central Bank as to how it stimulus program to fight the Continent’s financial worries.
The markets so far expect that the Fed is not going to announce anything staged despite more signals of a sharp retard in the U.S. economy. However, a good number of analysts believe the Fed will maintain its outlook that the fed funds rate, its benchmark interest rate, will be kept low until late 2014, or maybe extend it into 2015. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) is moving up today in a range of 13,007.47 – 13,074.83 with more than 10 of the 30 components showing uptrend.
Tech stocks including AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) are under pressure while among others E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD), Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and the Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV) are gaining.
Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)
Shares of Nokia Corporation are mounting higher after the reports that company executives are putting on further confidence in a possible recover. According to the WSJ, CEO Steven Elop and several directors have bought over 1 million of Nokia common since last week.
Elop purchased 275,000 shares, bringing total holdings to 425,000, while new Chairman Risto Siilasmaa bought 333,000 shares.
Executives are acquiring while the stock is down in expectation of Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Phone 8 debuting later this year. Nokia is indicated about 5 percent higher yesterday.
During mid day trading, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) reported the gain of +4.56% to $2.52 with the total traded volume of 111.88 million shares beating the average volume of 42.47 million. NOK has market capitalization of 9.44 billion.
E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD)
Shares of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co surged after it announced that it has declared a third quarter common stock dividend of 43 cents per share with the dividend yield of 3.41% payable Sept. 12, 2012, to stockholders of record Aug.
In mid day trading, E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) jumped +1.61% to $50.50 with the total traded volume of 7.20 million shares more than the average volume of 5.15 million. DD has earnings per share of $3.69 with the net profit margin of 8.66% and operating margin of 11.22%.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)
Shares of Merck & Co, Inc (NYSE:MRK), the second biggest US drug maker, moved up after it declared better-than-expected quarterly earnings on strong sales of vaccines and treatments for diabetes and HIV. Merck reported earnings of $1.79 billion or 58 cents a share during second quarter, evaluated against $2.02 billion or 65 cents a share in previous year.
The company reported that sales soared 1% to $12.31 billion, surpassing projections of $12.15 billion. Without special items, the corporation made $1.05 a share in earnings. Analysts on average forecasted $1.01.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) gained +1.13% and closed at $44.67 with the total traded volume of 3.82 million shares during mid day trading. It has outstanding shares of 3.04 billion with the total market capitalization of 135.87 billion and its beta value stands at 1.11 times.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)
In mid day trading, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) climbed +0.21% with the closing price of $37.99. The overall volume in the last trading session was 10.39 million shares. Its fifty two week range was $27.29-$38.28. The total market capitalization remained $220.59 billion.
T is ahead its 52 week low with 46.90% and its last month price volatility remained 2.06%. Its beta coefficient was 0.56 with a target price of $35.06. In its share capital T has 5.86 billion outstanding shares while all shares have been floated in market.