Dear Abby: What’s the difference between a wife and a mistress? -Bess.
Dear Bess: Night and day.
Pauline Phillips, the
iconic advice columnist who passed away at 94, could easily have been describing the wildly disparate
Dow (^DJI) performances of Wednesday and Thursday in her above one-liner. Blue chips bounced back from their Hump Day retreat to post their strongest showing for some time yesterday.
The outdoor billboards of
CBS Corporation (CBS)
warned us all that the world would end on May 21, 2011. (As with the Mayans, that particular prophecy of doom never did come to pass, but maybe it’ll be third time lucky.) Anyway, it’s just as well for the “Tiffany Network” that we’re still here, for it just surged 7.93% after
analyst upgrade and spin-off of its outdoor advertising unit, with the stock now standing at an historic peak.
The
General Motors (GM) CEO who said the “
sun will be on our backs” may have actually been crazy like a fox with his malapropism, for
Canadian Solar’s (CSIQ) 6.73% increase put wind turbine maker
American Superconductor’s (AMSC) 1.44% advance in the shade. And housing starts hit their highest level since June 2008, although a big building on
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is still worth less than it was at its peak.
Ahead of the holiday weekend, an improvement is expected in the University of Michigan’s January consumer sentiment survey at 9:55 a.m. Eastern.
It’s another full Friday for fourth quarter earnings, with key
Dow (^DJI) component
General Electric (GE) having already revealed a well-received set of numbers.
Johnson Controls (JCI),
Morgan Stanley (MS),
Parker-Hannifin (PH),
Rockwell Collins (COL),
Schlumberger (SLB),
State Street (STT), and
SunTrust Banks (STI) are all also scheduled to release results.
ACCO Brands (ACCO): Barclays begins Equal Weight rated research on ACCO.
Biotechnology: Piper Jaffray picks up
Oncothyreon (ONTY) at Underweight, has new Neutrals on
Threshold Pharmaceuticals (THLD) and
ZIOPHARM (ZIOP), and assigns Overweights on
Geron (GERN) and
Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO).
Harry Winston Diamond (NYSE:HWD) The stock, up sharply this week, is begun with a Buy at Nomura.
Starz (STRZA): Barclays starts the recent spin-off at Equal Weight while Susquehanna has a new Neutral.
(See also:
Stock Downgrades: Visa Not Where You Want to Be and
Stock Upgrades: Time Is Money for Movado.)
No positions in stocks mentioned.
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