Stock Market News for May 13, 2014 - Market News

The Dow and the S&P 500 closed at record highs on Monday primarily boosted by gains in Internet and bio-tech stocks. Merger and acquisition activity in the food industry too boosted investor sentiment. The day's economic report was limited to Treasury budget, which reported a surplus of $107.0 billion.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 0.7% to close Monday's trading session at 16,695.47. The Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500) rose almost 1.0% to finish at 1,896.65. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index went up 1.8% to 4,143.86. The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) plunged 5.3% to settle at 12.23. Total volume for the day was roughly 5.8 billion shares, lower than this month's average of 6.2 billion. Advancers outpaced declining stocks on the NYSE.  For 76% stocks that advanced, 21% declined.

Gains in the Internet and bio-tech stocks helped the benchmarks finish at record highs. The S&P 500 registered the best one-day percentage gain since April 16. The Dow reached an intra-day high and the Nasdaq gained the most in more than three months.
 
Internet stocks from the Technology sector such as Facebook, Inc. FB, Google Inc. GOOG, Groupon, Inc. GRPN, Yelp, Inc. YELP, LinkedIn Corporation LNKD, FireEye, Inc. FEYE, Yahoo! Inc. YHOO and Twitter, Inc. TWTR gained 4.5%, 2.2%, 1.7%, 4.4%, 2.4%, 7.9%, 2.0% and 5.9%, respectively.
 
Stocks such as Apple Inc. AAPL, Microsoft Corporation MSFT, International Business Machines Corporation IBM AT&T, Inc. T and Oracle Corporation ORCL increased 1.2%, 1.1%, 1.3%, 0.4% and 2.2%, respectively. Overall, the Technology Select Sector SPDR XLK rose 1.4%.

Shares of online retailer Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, Internet television network provider Netflix, Inc. NFLX, online travel company TripAdvisor Inc. TRIP and The Priceline Group Inc. PCLN went up 3.6%, 5.1%, 5.8% and 2.4%, respectively.
 
Also, shares of momentum stocks such as electric car maker Tesla Motors, Inc. TSLA and Internet radio service provider Pandora Media, Inc. P advanced 1.3% and 6.0%, respectively.
 
Bio-tech stocks too boosted the broader markets on Monday. Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX Amgen Inc. AMGN, Biogen Idec Inc. BIIB and Celgene Corporation CELG increased 0.7%, 4.1%, 0.2%, 4.9% and 2.6%, respectively.
 
Benchmarks also ended higher due to gains in the Industrial sector. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR XLI rose 1.5%. Key stocks from the sector such as General Electric Company GE, United Technologies Corp. UTX, Union Pacific Corporation UNP, The Boeing Company BA and 3M Company MMM increased 1.6%, 1.4%, 1.2%, 1.1% and 1.1%, respectively.
 
A new deal between Pinnacle Foods Inc. PF and The Hillshire Brands Company HSH was welcomed by the investors. Hillshire Brands agreed to buy Pinnacle Foods for about $4.3 billion in cash and stock. Including debt, the deal is valued at $6.6 billion. Pinnacle Foods shareholders will receive $18.00 in cash and 0.50 shares of Hillshire Brands for every Pinnacle share they own, amounting to total consideration of $36.48. Shares of Pinnacle Foods surged 13.2% while shares of the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Sara Lee frozen bakery goods dropped 3.2%.
 
Coming to economic data, according to the Department of the Treasury, total budget receipts aggregated to $414.0 billion in April, a surplus of $107.0 billion. The surplus was less than the consensus estimate of a surplus of $114.6 billion.
 
Nine out of 10 sectors of the S&P 500 ended in the green. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF XHB led the advance among the S&P 500 sectors. The sector rose 2.2%. Key housing stocks such as PulteGroup, Inc. PHM, Lennar Corp. LEN, DR Horton Inc. DHI and Beazer Homes USA Inc. BZH increased 2.8%, 2.2%, 2.8% and 0.5%, respectively.

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APPLE INC AAPL: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
AMAZON.COM INC AMZN: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
FACEBOOK INC-A FB: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
FIREEYE INC FEYE: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
GROUPON INC GRPN: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
INTL BUS MACH IBM: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
LINKEDIN CORP-A LNKD: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
MICROSOFT CORP MSFT: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
ORACLE CORP ORCL: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
AT&T INC T: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
TWITTER INC TWTR: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
YELP INC YELP: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
YAHOO! INC YHOO: Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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