Market Recap: Strong Start, Stable Through Day

Markets closed up on Wall Street today:

• Dow +2.19 percent
• S&P +1.95 percent
• Nasdaq +2.04 percent
• Oil +1.29 percent
• Gold +1.6 percent.

On the commodities front:

• Oil (NYSE:USO) settled just below $99.00 a barrel (highest in 3 months)
• Gold (NYSE:GLD) closed at $1,788.10 an ounce
• Silver (NYSE:SLV) climbed 1.7 percent to settle at $34.69 and ounce

The markets got off to a strong start this morning, and stayed that way throughout the day. The dollar weakened against the euro and yen as currency traders seem to believe that a solution to the mess in Europe is getting nearer. Trading volume has been moderate today, perhaps due to the bond market holiday.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Amazon.com Inc. started as “neutral” at Nomura.

Other changes included:

• Cameron International reiterated “buy” with $73 target at BofA/ML
• Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd. maintained “neutral” but cut target to $14 at JPMorgan
• NVIDIA Corporation reiterated “buy” with $18 target at BofA/ML
• SUPERVALU Inc reinstated as “neutral” at BofA/ML
• Regions Financial Corporation started as "outperform" at BMO Capital.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading:

• Dillard’s Inc. is down more than -13 percent, at $47.91
• D.R. Horton, Inc. is down more than -2 percent, at $11.42
• Bacterin International Holdings, Inc. is up more than 6 percent, at $2.90
• Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc. is down more than -3.5 percent, at $3.45
• The Howard Hughes Corp. is up more than 2.5 percent, at $47.25.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Pinnacle Data Systems Inc. is up more than 105 percent, at $2.36. The company has accepted a takeover offer from Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) worth $2.40/share.

Alimera Sciences, Inc. is down nearly -74 percent, at $1.94. The company failed to get FDA approval for its eye pain drug.

pSivida Corp. is down more than -46 percent, at $2.11. The company had licensed to Alimera an element of the drug that failed the FDA test.

Molycorp, Inc. is down more than -13 percent, at $33.43. The company missed earnings and revenue estimates.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. is down more than -9 percent, at $1.40. The company did not have any news today, but likely suffered from the earnings report from D.R. Horton.

Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp. is up more than 20 percent, at $2.75. The company’s shares were halted earlier, and the company issued a statement that there was no particular event responsible for the heavy trading in the stock.

Except for short-term Treasury Bill auctions, there are no events scheduled for Monday.

(Paul Ausick/Becket Adams—24/7 Wall St./The Blaze)