August 18

 

Monday so far has been generally good for U.S. stock market; the Dow Industrials has jumped up by 1%. All this improvement owes itself to the receding Ukraine tension and equities being supported by an onset of mergers.

According to Russia even though there is no apparent progress on the ceasefire front along with a lack of any solid political solution after a dialogue involving Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, but Ukraine humanitarian convoy issues have been dealt with.

There was still a lot of uncertainty followed by Ukrain’s accusation of Russian rebels attacking a refugee convoy on Monday; the convoy comprised of buses faced rocket fire. The convoy was somewhere near Luhansk; however separatists are yet to accept any responsibility for the incident.

Equities also saw a boost due to acquisitions and mergers happening frequently.

A major and much talk about offer for acquisition was made by Discount retailer Dollar General Corp (NYSE:DG) to Family Dollar Stores Inc (NYSE:FDO); the offer was made at a value of $8.95 billion, which is even more than Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR)’s offer. As a result of this Family Dollar Stores Inc (NYSE:FDO)’s shares went up by 5.1% at a value of $79.91; Dollar General Corp (NYSE:DG) also leaped up by 9.8% at a value of $63.07. These two emerged S&P 500’s best performers. Retail index of S&P <.SPXRT> went up by 1%.

LibertyView Capital Management’s president Rick Meckler said that it appears people made up their minds about Ukrainian conflict over the weekend believing that tension to be receding. This shows in today’s market.

He believes this belief of receding tension is the major reason why the market is up; however he also believes that ongoing M&A activities and improvement in economy are also major factors in this stability in the market.

Housing stocks also performed well as according to index of NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market homebuilder sentiment in August jumped up to a value of 55; this is its peak since way back in January where it went up to 53. <.HGX> the PHLX Housing Sector Index jumped up by 1.3%.

Industrial average of the Dow Jones industrial <.DJI> jumped up 161.92 points by 0.97% reaching a value of 16,824.83 whereas 15.6 points were gained by the S&P 500 <.SPX> going up by 0.8% reaching a value of 1,970.66. NASDAQ Composite <.IXIC> also gained 38.32 points and jumped up by 0.86% reaching a value of 4,503.25.

Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) is ready to make some changes as the company is currently reviewing its 100 brands that are not performing up to par. The company is getting advice from companies like Goldman Sachs Group that are its official advisors. Shares of P&G (NYSE:PG) also jumped up by 1% reaching a value of $82.64.

Earnings season is going to close after getting retailers’ results from Target Corp (NYSE:TGT), Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) and Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS).

On Monday August 18, 2014 S&P 500’s 467 companies have revealed their earnings out of which 67.9% companies have gone beyond expectations of analysts.

 

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