U.S. stocks ended higher as investors watched the U.S. presidential elections. Blue chips United Technologies (UTX), Boeing (BA) and Caterpillar (CAT) were among the top gainers.
Data Front
On the economic front, Corelogic reported the housing market's first month-over-month decline since February. While September home prices dipped 0.3% vs. August 2012, home prices increased year-over-year by 5% in September vs. September 2011, representing the biggest increase since July 2006.
The nation's job market has been a key weight in the 2012 campaign season, and the Labor Department said that U.S. employers posted 100,000 fewer jobs in September. It suggested hiring is likely to remain modest in the coming
months.
U.S. Equities Surge
With equities, U.S. sectors were all higher. In commodities, both energy and metals were higher.
Crude oil for December delivery was up 3.16% late in the session to $88.37 a barrel. December natural gas was up 1.72% to $3.615 per 1 million BTU.
December gold futures was up $30.20 at $1713.40 per ounce. December silver was up $0.822 to $31.95 per ounce. December copper was up $0.0415 at $3.5115 per pound.
Here's Where The Markets Stood At Day's End:
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) up 133.24 (+1.02%) to 13,245.68
- S&P 500 (^INX) up 11.13 (+0.79%) to 1,428.39
- Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) up 12.27 (+0.41%) to 3,011.93
- Nikkei 225 Index down 0.36%
- Hang Seng Index down 0.28%
- Shanghai China Composite Index down 0.38%
- FTSE 100 Index up 0.79%
- DAX up 0.7%
- (+) NVGN - Up sharply but off the day's 52-week high of $4.74. MEI Pharma, a San Diego-based subsidiary of NVGN, says it has raised $27.5 million.
- (+) ROSG - Says the New York State Department of Health has given the company final approval for its miRview lung assay following conditional approval issued in June. With this final approval, ROSG can continue to offer the miRview lung assay in all 50 U.S. states, it says.
- (+) JIVE - Late Monday, reported Q3 revenue of $28.9 million vs. the Capital IQ analyst estimate of $28.79. JIVE posted a loss per share for Q3 at $0.09, better than the Street view calling for a loss of $0.11. The company guided Q4 revenue in the range of $30.0 million - $31.5 million, and loss per share in the range of $0.15 - $0.17. The revenue estimate straddles the Street view, but falls short of the current expectation of a $0.09 EPS loss.
- (+) SYKE - Reports Q3 revenue of $280.5 million, better than the analyst consensus of $267 million on Capital IQ. EPS was $0.31, vs. expectations of $0.27 per share. For Q4, the company expects revenue between $300 to $305 million and EPS of $0.28 to $0.33, vs. the Street view of $272 million in revenue and earnings of $0.31.
- (-) SREV - Hit new 52-wk low of $5.05 earlier after a downgrade to Equalweight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Price target information was not available.
- (-) MKTG - Hit 52-wk low of $5.78 earlier after a downgrade by Credit Suisse to a Neutral rating from an Outperform rating. Price target information was not available.
- (-) VVUS - Reports Q3 revenue of $41,000, up from zero last year. Net loss was $0.40 per share, vs. a year ago loss of $0.10 per share.
- (-) MMYT - Hit 52-wk low of $10.77 earlier after reporting Q2 adjusted diluted EPS of $0.03 versus $0.04 in the comparable quarter. Revenue was $45.7 million compared to $43.8 million in the same quarter last year. Capital IQ analysts were expecting EPS of $0.05. Revenue was above the $23.72 million analyst forecast.