Tech stocks had a strong day as the overall market soared today on retail sales data that shows consumers still happily buying stuff.
The Nadaq gained 49.94, or 1.88 percent, to close at 2,701.73. The Dow finished one of its best days in years with a rise of 283.86 (over 2 percent), to reach 13,861.73. It’s been about a year since it rose more than 200 points in a day. The S&P 500 gained 28.94 to finish at 1,547.70.
What a difference after a shaky start to the week when stocks plunged on Tuesday thanks to warnings from Sears and Home Depot and continuing housing market woes.
One bit of data helped: June retail sales, which showed some improvement. That got Amazon investors happy. The etailing giant gained $2.06, or just over 2 percent to close at $72.79 today.
Number one cell phone maker Nokia got a bounce from Motorola’s earnings warning. Shares of Nokia gained 3.7 percent to close at $29.95 today after an analyst showed it some love.
Motorola , meanwhile, is looking at another shareholder revolt against CEO Ed Zander after the cell phone maker said it expects second-quarter sales to be between $8.6 billion to $8.7 billion and that its mobile device unit will not be profitable for the full year.
The news, which sent Motorola shares down 20 cents to $17.75 in morning trading, has prompted at least one analyst to say Samsung would catch Motorola before Motorola catches market leader Nokia. Shares of Motorola ended the regular trading day up by 13 cents to $18.08 today.