Stock Market Today

Wednesday, January 29 2020

Daily Updates

Stock Market Today: January 28, 2020

William G. Ferguson and John E. Seibert III | 01/28/2020

The stock market started quite positively today, rebounding well off of yesterday’s lows. A news report stated that Apple (AAPL) plans to boost iPhone production by 10% when compared to the first half of 2019. Given the company’s weight in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500, the substantial price movement pushed the indices higher. However, quarterly earnings reports and the new 2020 outlooks for 3M (MMM) and Pfizer (PFE). The indices rose steadily throughout the session and ended not far from the highs of the day. All told the Dow closed higher by 187 points, the S&P 500 was up 33 points, and the NASDAQ rose 130 points.

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Dow 30 Earnings: Pfizer Fourth Quarter 2019

Michael Ratty | 01/28/2020

New York-based drugmaker and Dow-30 component Pfizer (PFE) reported a fourth-quarter GAAP loss of $0.06 a share, versus a $0.07 deficit in the comparable period of 2018. The modest year-over-year improvement was driven by lower production costs (-15%) and a significant reduction in restructuring charges (-48%), which helped mitigate increases in R&D (+15%) and SG&A expenses (+6%), and a 9% pullback in revenues (more below). Meantime, adjusted earnings, which exclude one-time gains, losses and other nonrecurring items, and are more closely followed by Wall Street, came in at $0.55 a share, versus $0.63 in Q4, 2018. The adjusted tally missed consensus expectations looking for $0.58 on average, owing in part to a roughly $40 million miss on the top line. Shares of PFE were trading a few percentage points lower on the release.

Dow 30 Earnings: United Technologies Fourth Quarter 2019

Erik M. Manning | 01/28/2020

Industrial conglomerate United Technologies ended 2019 with a solid fourth-quarter performance. Management also provided further details on the company’s planned separation.

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