World markets rally halted: Hot S&P 500 companies include Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sprint (NYSE:S)
World markets started the New Year on a high note, but rally halted on Thursday as investors weighed on U.S. political fights in coming days over spending cuts. The MSCI world equity index retreated from an 18-month peak level to be down 0.1 percent at 346.7 points while other riskier assets including oil and the euro also alleviated.
Benchmark indexes in Germany, Britain and France were down 0.1 to 0.4 percent, moving back from multi-month highs on Wednesday when relief swept the markets after U.S. regulators signed a budget deal to avoid a fiscal crunch.
U.S. stocks surged on the first trading day of 2013 as traders around the globe felt renewed confidence but they will now shift their focus to the December U.S. employment report on Friday. This is projected to reveal modest job growth of around 150,000 compared with 146,000 in November.
The S&P 500 Index marked the biggest gain since Dec. 20, 2011 with all 10 groups in the index moved up at least 1.8 percent.
The share price of S&P 500 component Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) gained 3.41% during trading yesterday, ending at $27.62. The company has reportedly acquired d8 Group R2 Studios Inc. to beef up its Xbox unit.
At that price, the company has a market cap of $232.46 billion and a P/E ratio of 14.92. The stock has a 52 week worst hit of $26.26 and a 52 week high of $32.95. The P/S ratio is 3.21 and P/B ratio 3.38. Dividend yield stands at 3.33 percent. The beta value is 0.98. MSFT’s RSI amounts to 53.36.
Despite new low on first business day of 2013, another S&P 500 company Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) managed to end in green after BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on the stock (ABT) at Outperform rating.
The market value of Abbott Laboratories is $50.66 billion. It has 91,000 people in workforce, over the last 12 months has generated revenue of $39.41 billion and has earnings of $6.53billion. The firm’s operating margin is 19.67 percent and net profit margin 16.56 percent. The latest closing price of its shares moved down -50.69% from the 50-day moving average.
For EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), a return on equity of 13.61 percent has been realized due to the financial position. Last twelve months per-share profit reached a value of $1.22. Earnings are projected to move up 13.84 percent for the coming five years. The stock closed at $24.84, down -0.46 points or -1.82% from previous close and at a distance of -1.49% from 20-day simple moving average.
In the last trading session, Sprint Nextel Corporation(NYSE:S)’s price moved 39.02% above its 200 day moving average, changing hands as low as $5.63 per share after Guggenheim analysts maintained their buy rating on shares of Sprint (S). The stock is currently trading 3.14% up its SMA 50. The worst hit in its 52 week range is $2.10 per share, with $6.04 being the 52 week best price, which compares with a latest closing price of $5.79. The Beta of this stock is 0.3.
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