Stocks held Thursday's gains and proceeded to tack on close to 1% this morning. Investors quickly forgot last week's pessimism and big losing streak as hopes grew that Europe would move to curb its growing debt problem. Yesterday, Mario Draghi reinforced his commitment to saving the euro, leading investors to expect some form of stimulus and sending stocks soaring. By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Positive domestic news also contributed to the market's rise as investors held onto their shimmery hopes of further stimulus. As expected, gross domestic product only expanded at 1.5% between April and June, the weakest increase since the third quarter of 2011. While this may seem like bad news, the announcement hit the sweet spot where it exceeded lower projections, but was still weak enough to potentially indicate more Fed assistance is on the way. The news countered the lukewarm earnings season so far, as many companies have beat earnings estimates but missed revenue projections.
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Merck
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Momentum from earlier in the week continued to buoy Caterpillar
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