Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Stocks Back on the Rise; Estee Lauder Gaining, Arch Coal Falling

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index are both up about 0.8% today, as investors shrug off yesterday’s losses. It seems the bulls are well and truly back:

A survey last week showed investment managers were not only long stocks, but they were leveraging their portfolios to take on even more risk at a rate last seen in January 2007, according to the National Association of Active Investment Managers.

�The bears of the group have given up,� Will Hepburn, president at Hepburn Capital Management and originator of the survey, said in a chat with MarketBeat.

The average investment manager polled was holding a net long position of 104%, the second highest mark since the survey began in July 2006, according to NAAIM, which measures the equity exposure of its roughly 160 members that manage about $20 billion in assets.

On the rise are shares of Estee Lauder (EL), up 4.6% after its fiscal second-quarter profit rose 13% on higher revenue.

Also gaining are shares of Gilead Sciences (GILD), up about 3.5% after better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue as sales of its flagship HIV drugs beat Wall Street estimates.

Continuing yesterday’s slide are shares of McGraw-Hill (MHP), down another 8.5% today after falling close to 14% yesterday. The company’s Standard & Poor’s unit faces a civil suit filed by US regulators for the way S&P rated mortgage bonds in the mid-2000s. Rival Moody’s (MCO), which fell almost 11% yesterday, is down less today, off about 3%.

Yum Brands (YUM) stock is down 6% after its earnings announcement revealed falling sales and profits in China caused by the chicken scare in that country. The problems in China left Yum forecasting a single-digit earnings-per-share decline in 2013.

Arch Coal (ACI) stock is down about 8% after the coal producer reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss and 15% drop in sales volume.

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