The markets finished the week with a strong move across the board. Excitement over earnings season along with continued bounces in retail, and oil continued to fuel today's bounce which sent the Dow 30 up 87, the S&P 500 up 11, and the Nasdaq 100 higher by 38. The S&P 500 broke to new, all time highs in the process as well. Next week, along with the next few weeks traders will focus on earnings as they are reported.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) shares started the day lower along with the rest of the big banking stocks today as the company announced earnings that came in mixed. The bank shared quarterly profits of $1.07 per share which was higher than the street expected, but it's revenue of $22.17 billion missed by $300 million. CEO Tim Sloan said in a statement, "We continued to make progress this quarter in our efforts to rebuild trust and build a better Wells Fargo and, while there is still more work ahead of us, we are on the right track and I am confident about our future." The stock finished down 1.10% on the day, well off its lows.
JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) shares were also lower on the day despite the bank beating the streets earnings estimates. Earnings per share came in at $1.71 on revenue of $26.41 billion. Analysts had foretasted a profit of $1.58 and revenue of $24.96 billion. For the day shares closed lower by 0.91%, but well off their lows of the session.
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) added another 1.75% today as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) upgraded the company to buy from neutral and added the stock to its 'Conviction Buy' list. Goldman commented that they are "confident that Walmart can compete with rival Amazon" and is "as well positioned as any mass market retailer." In the last 4 days Walmart has bounced over 4%, completely erasing all of Monday's losses.