Image source: Herbalife.
Friday was a day of rest for the stock market. The S&P 500 missed its chance to post five straight all-time record highs by giving up about a tenth of a percent. All in all, investor reaction to the terrorist attack in Nice Thursday night was muted, and the Dow actually managed to post a modest gain, climbing further into record territory. Given the huge gains we've seen all week long, investors seemed content to consolidate their profits and look forward to the ramp-up in corporate earnings that will happen over the next couple of weeks.
Few stocks made big gains, but Herbalife (HLF +0.40%), Jabil Circuit (JBL +2.21%), and Twilio (TWLO 5.75%) stood out from their peers Friday.
Herbalife tries to put its problems behind it
Herbalife jumped 10% after the multi-level marketing company and seller of nutritional supplements announced a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The deal involves Herbalife paying $200 million to settle allegations that the company is a pyramid scheme, and the move helps Herbalife put an end to years of uncertainty about whether federal regulators would make more aggressive moves to force the company to shut down its business. In addition, Herbalife's board of directors gave billionaire investor Carl Icahn the ability to acquire up to almost 35% of outstanding shares, and some investors speculate that the activist investor might make a stronger move toward an outright acquisition bid for the company.
Jabil gets an upgrade
Jabil Circuit rose 6% after the technology components maker got a favorable review from analysts at Raymond James. The analyst company boosted its rating on Jabil Circuit from "outperform" to "strong buy," boosting its price target by $5 to hit $26 per share. The company's components appear in various iPhone models, and uncertainty about future iPhone demand has weighed on Jabil's prospects recently. Yet analysts believe the sentiment toward the stock could finally start to reverse itself and become more favorable. Today's gains weren't enough to wipe out this year's losses, but they did push the stock to its best levels since March and raise hopes for a true turnaround in the near future.
Twilio keeps on climbing into the clouds
Finally, Twilio gained 3%. The cloud-communications company went public less than a month ago, and already, its shares have nearly tripled from their IPO price and are close to doubling from where they first traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Twilio has also seen its shares rise in response to other companies going public -- most recently Line, which hit the market on Thursday. With investors feeling more optimistic about the stock market overall, new high-growth stocks like Twilio are gaining acceptance more quickly than they would under more difficult conditions. That's good news for early investors, even if it raises the possibility that stocks will get overheated as the bull market rages on.
