It was a wild week on Wall Street, and when the markets closed on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -1.79%) was down 1.80% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC -1.13%) had fallen 2.11%. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took most of the spotlight by hinting that the Fed may be willing to slow (or "taper") its $85 billion bond-buying program later this year. I did a deep look at why Bernanke moved the markets this week and why you should care, in an article found here. Despite the down markets, there were a few stocks that moved higher on the Dow this week.
Cisco (CSCO -1.55%) wasn't exactly knocking investors off their feet this week, but it did rise 1.6%. The stock jumped on Monday after showcasing its "Connected Boulevard" concept in Nice, France. The concept builds a smart network of sensors that can detect traffic patterns, parking, and the environment in real time and relay that information to residents. The world is becoming more and more connected, and what investors can take from this concept is that Cisco is at the forefront of new ways to capture and disseminate data.
American Express (AXP -3.47%) was the Dow's second biggest winner this week after gaining just 0.5%. You may think that news of tapering from the Fed would be bad for American Express because of high interest rates, but you have to dig a little deeper to see why the Fed's actions may be good for the company. The Fed will only stop buying bonds or thinking about raising interest rates if the economy is strong, and a strong economy means lower credit risk for American Express. Bernanke said he would slow bond buying if unemployment continued to fall and the economy continued to improve, so a bullish Fed was good for American Express this week.
DuPont rounds out the top three Dow stocks with a 0.4% gain this week. There wasn't any Earth-shattering news out about the company this week, so I wouldn't read too much into the fact that it was only one of five Dow stocks in the black this week. DuPont has been struggling with disappointing sales and profits over the past year, and it has a lot to prove to investors before being viewed as a safe stock in the chemical space.
