These 3 Dow Stocks Surged Today

By Dan Dzombak | More Articles
January 19, 2012 | Comments (1)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI ) finished up today 0.37%, the third up day in a row.

Index	Change	Ending Value
Dow Jones Industrial Average	+46.24 [+0.47%]	12,625.19
S&P 500	+6.46 [+0.49%]	1,314.50

Today's Top 3

Today’s leader was Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) which finished up 2.35% [$0.16] to end the day at $6.96. The company reported positive earnings this morning, after which its stock rose as high as $7.29 early in the session before it gave away its gains as the day progressed. While the earnings weren't stupendous, they were enough to make Bank of America profitable over the past year.
Alcoa (NYSE: AA ) was second behind Bank of America today, finishing up 1.60% [$0.16] to end the day at $10.18. During the past two days, shares have rallied on the news of slowing Chinese GDP growth. While counterintuitive, this is positive as many believe this will lead to an easing of Chinese monetary policy and thus faster growth in the future.
Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) took third for the day, up 1.43% [$1.49] to end the day at $105.75. Like Alcoa, the shares have rallied the past two days on news of a possible easing of Chinese monetary policy.

The best approach
Watching the broad market each day is exciting, gut-wrenching, and stressful, but investing doesn’t have to be. If you're in the mood to pick up a great company to buy for the long term, The Motley Fool has created a brand-new free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012." It features a company hand-selected by the Fool's chief investment officer that has a strong future ahead of it. Get access to the report and find out the name of this legendary company. The report is free, but won't be forever, so check it out today.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Dan Dzombak owns shares of Bank of America, but he holds no other position in any company mentioned. Fun Fact: If you take the first letter of each of these 3 top stocks (company name or ticker) you get BAC, which is Bank of America’s ticker. Click here to see Dan's holdings and a short bio. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read/Post Comments (1) | Recommend This Article (3)

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Report this Comment On January 19, 2012, at 11:17 PM, yhtbaotbai wrote:

The DJIA stocks which advanced the most percentage-wise today were some which got the very most beaten-up in the market late last year........ And two of the three ended with the very largest annual 2011 percent declines. Dead-cat bounces???????

Add your comment.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 1761495, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 5/27/2012 4:08:38 AM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated 1 day ago Sponsored by:
	DOW	12,454.83	-74.92	-0.60%
	S&P 500	1,317.82	-2.86	-0.22%
	NASD	2,837.53	-1.85	-0.07%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes