Changes to the 30 stocks in the index. Three changes that tell a huge tale about where Corporate America is today. Before we get to those changes, though, the old dow jones average had a pretty darn good day rallying 128 points, s p climbed. 7 . Nasdaq jumped. 62 . Wouldve been more except for apple. First president obama talked about more diplomatic kind of more diplomatic outcome, the syrian crisis, perhaps allowing Bashar Al Assad to work with russia. The fluid situation offers a way out of congressional defeat of president obamas war resolution or the possibility of a wider war with far worse consequences than a missile strike targeted at the regimes leadership. Remember, the stock market craves certainty more than anything else, and the uncertainty of waking up and finding out whether we launched missiles last night has kept some on the sidelines, and had others relentlessly selling until either the missiles are in the air or the fear of a strike has subsided. You take that off th
Consider today, on a day when the nasdaq lost. 11 . Let me set the stage for people who may not be up on whats happening. Before i answer these incredibly important questions i just laid out. This morning David Einhorn an excellent Hedge Fund Manager announced hes suing apple because they want to block a suggestion of his. I said he says, that would aggressively return capital to its share hordes. Einhorn want to stop them from amending their charter so he says it cant eliminate this possibility of offering a preferred security that he believes could give shareholders some major consistent return on investment, rather than the common stock of which he frankly said needs a little juicing. Lets put it that way. He thinks it can do that. Einhorn said this morning, while apple is a quote, a phenomenal company, creating iconic products that consumers around the world love, end quote, hes not happy with the way apple manages its finances. He wants apple to do more with its 137 billion cash h
You need a watch. Yes, davos. I think the fiscal drag is underestimated the timing is overestimated. Capital spending recovery. Well take that to the bank. Join is on tuesday. Have a great weekend. Inauguration day. Squawk on the street begins right now. Good friday morning. Welcome to squawk on the street. Im melissa lee, with carl quintanilla, jim cramer and david faber. Dow looking to add about 16. The s p 500 looking to add about a third of a point here. Yesterday, of course, the s p closed at fiveyear highs in what is notable, transports, airlines, housing and cyclicals all at 52week highs. In europe, juiced by china data which well talk about. A mixed wag over there. Signs of the rally here could continue. Chinas gdp topped estimates, General Electric beats by a penny, caterpillar catches an upgrade from piper. Morgan stanley showed improvement in Investment Banking. The latest decline of the pc, intel trading lower on its earnings with a pop in cap x spending. Reuters says sharp
Analysts recent gains are rational exuberance. Especially on a day where the averages kind of stalled out. Dow edging down 14 points, s p dipping. 18 . Nasdaq advancing. Thank you apple for actually going up. When we see these articles, how about the articles about our Retail Investors are back and the bears are in hibernation, like this one. This one about surging stocks in the wall street journal. When the bears are on their heels. First, let me say, heres the way i play it, we should always be skeptical, we should always be a little worried. Thats okay. Especially after a move like this, where we go to fiveyear highs and have the best january in years. Wed be fools not to consider what could go wrong. Remember last Earnings Period . We came into this very week with mostly better than expected numbers, as we have this time. But it was pretty much all downhill from there. Hey, look, after vm ware reported tonight, it was very disappointing, a lot of the cloud stocks down, this time co
S p giving up. 37 . Nasdaq declining. 25 . And we seem to fold in angst to run from stocks as if theyre toxic instruments doomed to ruin our Bank Accounts the house of pain. So perhaps its a good moment to ask do we fret too much . Do we let our fears take hold when the market reverses . Do we let a small drift, you know, one of these ones like today, define us after the s p been up eight days straight. Or as stocks decline, do we recognize we sometimes get too worried when event was or earnings or trends go against us . Just think of what has really happened in the last two months alone. How much do we fret . We fretted endlessly that one day, one day we would, indeed, have a dramatic rise in Interest Rates. Show what happened . We got one. A huge percentage increase, a whopper of one. What does the market do . Well, how about giving the s p 500 the longest winning streak in nine years, how about the nasdaq going up, best since 1990. We were supposed to be frightened out of our shorts