Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
The final revision of the second-quarter GDP number was released today, and the markets responded nicely to the confirmation that 2013 Q2-U.S. GDP growth was at 2.5%. All three of the major U.S. indexes closed higher for the session. Not only did the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.67%) manage to move 55 points, or 0.36% higher, it broke a five-day losing streak. A few Dow components, in particular, helped the index break the streak; let's take a look at a few of them now.
Nike (NKE -0.36%) was one of the Dow's big winners today during both the regular trading session, and the after-hours session. The stock was up 2.06% when the closing bell rang at 4 p.m. EDT, and then rose more than 6% in after-hours trading following the company's quarterly earnings release. The company was expected to report earnings per share of $0.78, but beat those estimates with EPS of $0.86. Revenue was in line with what Wall Street wanted to see at $6.97 billion, as the company reported revenue growth in every region in which it operates around the world except for China, which experienced a decline of 3%. Management had previously warned investors that growth in China would slow in the coming quarters, so news that it had didn't shock investors today.
Shares of Verizon (VZ -4.67%) rose 1.54% today. The company is going through somewhat of a transition as it prepares to take full ownership of Verizon Wireless, and that has caused some analysts to pose the question of whether or not the company would be better suited if it spun off the FiOS unit. Making such a move would allow management to focus completely on the wireless services business, but it would lower the company's diversity, which may cause issues down the road.
Other news today pertaining to Verizon was that competitor T-Mobile (TMUS 0.02%) announced that it would no longer carry Blackberry (BB 1.82%) devices in stores. While the Blackberry is likely on its way out, the decision to keep the devices in stock in stores may be turn out to be a good one. Someone looking to upgrade a phone likely wants to feel and test-drive the new device before buying it, and having that option available to customers in stores could be the difference between gaining market share and losing it -- even if it's only a small portion of the overall wireless market that still use Blackberrys.
Shares of Boeing (BA 0.39%) rose 0.73% today after the company released data on its airplane orders year to date. And even though the company had a number of problems with its 787 Dreamliner program, Boeing only lost one 787 that had been ordered -- that's just one plane -- while losing 104 737s, and a handful of other planes. But, despite the loss of 118 ordered planes, the company has net 834 airplane orders this year.
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