When earnings season gets off to a positive note, everyone's happy. That's exactly what happened today, as some positive signs about the world economy overcame lingering concerns about the ability of the stock market to keep rising into what's about to be four years of a bull market. Even as people worry about the economy and government fiscal policy, optimistic analysts are increasingly calling for the Dow Jones Industrials (^DJI -0.11%) and the S&P 500 to set new all-time highs of their own, following in the footsteps of lesser-followed indices like the small-cap Russell 2000. The Dow ended up 62 points at the close.
Within the Dow, Boeing (BA -2.87%) was the big winner, rising more than 3% and reversing its losses yesterday that resulted from another incident with its newly released 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Throughout the day, a host of company officials and independent analysts noted that such mishaps are routine for new aircraft, and that so far, none of the issues that have arisen have suggested any major design flaws with the Dreamliner. Nevertheless, Boeing will obviously remain vulnerable to short-term share-price fluctuations as long as investors remain sensitive to news about the aircraft.
Outside the Dow, NuVasive (NUVA) soared more than 10% after giving preliminary guidance for its full-year 2012 results. With boosts in revenue expectations both for the just-completed year as well as 2013, investors believe that the worst may be over for the medical-device company, which has been plagued by lower-priced competition and fears that its turnaround might not bear fruit for shareholders.
Finally, Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) finished up more than 7% after DISH Network made a rival bid for the wireless communications company. Investors had expected that Sprint Nextel's (S) bid late last year would likely win the day, but DISH's bid came in at $3.30 per share, well above Sprint's $2.97. Clearwire's board hasn't yet changed its recommendation of the Sprint buyout, but with the entire industry in flux, DISH's bid throws still more confusion into the mix.
