Although investors were confused by the Federal Reserve's meeting minutes yesterday, they understood the chairman loud and clear when he spoke at a press conference yesterday after the markets closed. Ben Bernanke told investors that the Fed will continue its monetary policies for the foreseeable future. Those comments have given investors the confidence they need to continue pushing stocks higher.
As of 12:55 p.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.12%) is up 130 points, or 0.85%, while the S&P 500 is 1.02% higher and the Nasdaq has climbed 1.3%. Currently, all but two of the Dow's 30 components are higher, so let's look at the broader indexes to find the companies missing out on the rally.
Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY 0.86%) are flat after news broke last night that two key executives had left the company: Marc Gingras, who started social-calendar company Tungle.me, which Blackberry bought in 2011, and T. A. McCann, who started a contact management company call Gist, which Blackberry also purchased in 2011. Just a few days ago, Blackberry announced plans to cut its workforce, so I suppose these two men did the company a favor by leaving on their own. Nevertheless, the departures are not a good sign for shareholders.
Shares of TripAdvisor (TRIP 4.15%) are down 2.3% today on news that Susquehanna has initiated coverage on the company at "negative." Furthermore, the firm gave Priceline.com a "positive" rating while slapping a "neutral" rating on Expedia and Orbitz, which means it's not the industry itself that concerns Susquehanna, but rather something specific to TripAdvisor.
Lastly, shares of PriceSmart (PSMT +0.14%) are down 2.4%. The retailer posted earnings after the closing bell yesterday, missing expectations for earnings per share but beating on revenue. Analysts had expected revenue of $569 million and EPS of $0.64, but revenue of $572 million and EPS of $0.61 weren't enough to impress investors. Furthermore, the company increased sales on a year-over year basis by more than 12%, but some of those gains were likely due to the increased store count.
