The markets are starting May in style, a nice change from yesterday's declines to end April. In a reversal from yesterday's sour Midwest factory data, the April ISM came in at 54.8, an increase of 1.4 from March, easily outpacing an anticipated sequential decline. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at how the major indexes are faring today and drill down on a few stocks driving today's action.

Index

Gain/Loss

Gain/Loss %

Intraday Value

Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI) 112.88 0.85% 13,326.51
Nasdaq 23.66 0.78% 3,070.02
S&P 500 13.97 1.0% 1,387.56

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Materials companies like Alcoa (NYSE: AA) are seeing residual action, as shares of the aluminum manufacturer are up 2.8%, but economic enthusiasm has also spread to the banking industry; Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) leads all Dow components with a 3.4% gain.

Earnings fell 19% for big pharma giant Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) as uber-blockbuster Lipitor's sales cratered 42% during its first full quarter of generic competition. To combat the patent cliff, Pfizer is going through a radical transformation that refocuses the company on its pharmaceutical business. The company recently sold its nutrition business to Nestle for almost $12 billion, and when the animal health division is sold, it should bring in an additional $18 billion. That war chest will help restock a pipeline that already has exciting drug candidates like blood thinner Eliquis awaiting FDA approval. Investors weren't surprised by Pfizer's near-term challenges and shares are roughly flat for the day.

On the flip side, investors we caught off guard by criticism aimed at Herbalife (NYSE: HLF) from famed short-seller David Einhorn. Shares are down almost 25% after Einhorn had very pointed questions for Herbalife's management on today's conference call regarding distributor data. Despite a great quarter that surpassed expectations on both top and bottom lines, Einhorn's presence could mean that Greenlight Capital may be targeting Herbalife as an overvalued company.

Get ready for more surprises
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