While it may occasionally be true that "no news is good news," in the stock market, no news means no moves, and today was no different as investors look to tomorrow's elections for an idea of what the government will be like in the coming years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI -0.20%) gained 19 points, or 0.15%, to close at 13,112 on Monday.
Despite the fact that, according to Bloomberg, around 70% of companies that have reported results that beat quarterly estimates this earnings season, markets haven't seen much of a boost as a result. In fact, the Dow fell more than 2% in October and has simply treaded water in the three days of trading we've had thus far this month.
Leading the Dow's comeback -- the markets were down to start the day -- was Hewlett-Packard (HPQ -1.23%), one of 17 in the index to advance. HP was up more than 1.8% on the day on news that it invested money in the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit involved in the development of operating systems. Its investment means HP gets a seat on the Linux board, alongside other tech companies including fellow Dow member Intel (INTC -2.12%). Intel, incidentally, was the third worst performer in the Dow today, shaving nearly 1% off its market value.
Disney (DIS -1.36%) was another outperformer in the index today, rising more than 0.9%. After initially taking a small hit after the company announced its $4 billion acquisition of George Lucas' Lucasfilm business, the stock has clawed its way back up in anticipation of quarterly earnings numbers, due out Thursday. Investors (and fans) will have to wait a little longer for the next installment of the Star Wars franchise, though, which is due out in 2015.
Outside the Dow, Apple (AAPL 0.07%) made news today by announcing that it sold more than 3 million fourth-generation iPads and iPad Mini models in the past three days. The company didn't break down the sales numbers between the two devices but did say that Minis essentially sold out. Investors were impressed, and the stock went up 1.4% as a result of the announcement.
