Back Above 2,100

The S&P 500 is back over 2,100. Still, the 2,040 to 2,120 trading range continues.

This is a very big week for earnings. For some reason, there aren’t as many earnings reports on Monday and Friday. But one big earnings report came from Morgan Stanley (MS) this morning. The bank had a very strong quarter; profits soared 60%. They earned 85 cents per share which was seven cents better than expectations. The stock is currently up about 0.5%.

I’m not a fan of MS until they start paying a more reasonable dividend. Given their profits, they should be paying out something like 25 cents per share. Instead, they pay out 10 cents per share. As an investor, I want to see more of a cushion (unless there’s a very good reason).

The Dow is leading the rest of the market thanks to a strong day from IBM (IBM). Since the Dow is price weighted, the higher-priced stocks have greater say. The 10-year yield is currently holding at 1.87%. The yield is very close to a 10-week low. In February, the 10-year yield got as low as 1.65% which was the lowest since May 2013.

Posted by on April 20th, 2015 at 10:12 am


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