The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.56%) ended the day down 1.38 points, or 0.01%, after this morning's release of the S&P/Case Shiller home-price index for 20 metropolitan areas showed that prices in May fell short of analysts' expectations. Not only did the 1% jump fall short of the 1.5% target, but it was much lower than the index's 1.7% increase in April. Many are now fearful of what results will look like in June, since interest rates took a big jump during the second half of May.
The other major indexes managed to eke out winning sessions today, as the S&P 500 rose 0.04% and the Nasdaq increased by 0.48%.
Shares of three of the Dow's big technology companies led the way today. Cisco (CSCO 0.44%) was the big blue-chip winner, as shares rose 1.34%. The stock received a boost after Sourcefire, a company Cisco announced a week ago that it's buying for $2.7 billion, released earnings today that beat on both the top and bottom lines. Sourcefire posted revenue growth of 29% compared with the same time frame last year, which is a great sign that Cisco is buying a strong, rapidly growing company. That should help Cisco with its own results moving forward.
Microsoft (MSFT -1.27%) was also a big winner, as shares rose 0.35%. Microsoft officially launched Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview today, and it was well received by industry experts. The newer version of Windows 8 has been changed to match some of the features users liked about older versions but had been removed. One new feature is "Windows To Go," which allows users to plug in a USB drive on a device and instantly run Windows 8, with no download or setup required. Windows 8.1 has a good chance to wow consumers and increase sales of the operating system.
Lastly, shares of Intel (INTC -2.40%) rose 0.6% after news that the company is developing a DVR-type service which would certainly disrupt the traditional TV business. The Wall Street Journal reported that 350 Intel employees are working on a system that would record every TV channel, in every time slot, in every market, both in the U.S. and abroad, and save the information on servers for up to three days. The service would essentially make individual DVRs pointless and disrupt traditional TV providers, as Intel would deliver their service over the Internet. While this may sound like a far-fetched idea, the fact that the company has 300-plus employees working on the project should be an indication that management is serious about it.
