These 3 Dow Stocks Surged Today (^DJI, IBM, UTX)

These 3 Dow Stocks Surged Today

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI ) finished down 0.26% today; however, some stocks did much better than the Dow as a whole.

Today's Top 3

Today's leader was United Technologies (NYSE: UTX ) , which finished up 1.2% [$0.92] to end the day at $77.78. United Technologies reports earnings tomorrow morning along with Boeing; analysts expect earnings per share of $1.46 and revenue of $15.1 billion.
IBM (NYSE: IBM ) was second behind United Technologies today, finishing up 1.03% [$1.95] to end the day at $191.93. The tech giant was up with the rest of the tech sector following the positive earnings from itself and other industry stalwarts last week.
Wal-Mart (Nasdaq: WMT ) took third for the day, up 0.79% [$0.48] to end the day at $61.39. While there was no real news for Wal-Mart, the stock hit a 52-week high today of $62.00, a level not seen since 2008. In the interim three years, Wal-Mart has raised its dividend from $0.24 to $0.365 per quarter.

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 it won't be here 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!

Dan Dzombak holds no position in any company mentioned. Check out his holdings and a short bio. The Motley Fool owns shares of IBM and Wal-Mart. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of and creating a diagonal call position in Wal-Mart. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't 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.

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.