The stock markets in the United States fluctuated and ended the trading session slightly changed today. The Dow Jones was down 0.03% while the S&P 500 was flat. The NASDAQ and Russell 2000 gained 0.33% and 0.18%, respectively.
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Today, the Department of Commerce reported that the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded 2.3% on an annualized rate.
On the other hand, the Department of Labor reported that the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to 267,000 for the week ended July 27.
The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) was satisfied with labor market citing continued improvement with solid job gains and declining unemployment. The central bank said it would raise the federal funds rate when further improvement in the labor market and reasonably confident that inflation returns to its 2% target.
[drizzle]Commenting on the market trends, Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at Philadelphia Trust Co. told Bloomberg, “When you put the Fed, the economy and earnings season all together, you still get a sideways market. You’ve had a handful of stocks that have really moved the averages over the past couple weeks of earnings, and today is not an exception.”
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 17,745.98 (-0.03%)
- S&P 500- 2,108.63 (+0.00%)
- NASDAQ- 5,128.78 (+0.33%)
- Russell 2000- 1,231.81 (+0.18%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,583.79 (+0.23%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,668.87 (+0.57%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 11,168.60 (-1.01%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 20,522.83 (+1.08%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 24,497.98 (-0.49%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 3,815.41 (-2.93%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Facebook declined almost 2% to $95.21 per share after reporting its financial results for the second quarter. The social network giant posted better-than-expected earnings of $0.50 per share on $4.04 billion in revenue. Analysts expected the company to deliver $0.47 in earnings per share on $3.99 billion in revenue. Investors were probably disappointed with its average daily active users (DAUs) of 968 million users. Their estimate was 970.5 million users.
eHealth surged more than 22% to $15.50 per share, the biggest gainer among the companies listed on NASDAQ. The company reported outstanding financial results for the second quarter. Its adjusted earnings increased to $0.44 per share from $0.22 in the same period last year. Its revenue was $39.9 million, down by 6%.
The stock value of Mondelez International increased 5% to $45.27 per share. The company reported that its adjusted earnings increased 37.5% to $0.47 per share on constant currency basis. Its net revenues declined 9.2% to $7.7 billion. However, the company said its organic net revenue climbed 4.3%.
The board of directors of Mondelez International approved a $6 billion increase in the company’s share repurchase authorization to $13.7 billion and extended the expiration until December 31, 2018.
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