After a strong session yesterday, the stock market settled back on Tuesday to consolidate its gains, rising in a much more moderate fashion that nevertheless sent the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 to record highs for the second-straight day. Sluggish economic data on retail sales helped set a somewhat less optimistic tone in the market, but the upward momentum from yesterday's big jump carried over to provide a bit of buoyancy in stocks. Even though most major market indexes were little changed Tuesday, FuelCell Energy (FCEL -2.22%), Rackspace Hosting (RAX), and Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR.DL) all finished trading with sharp gains.
Source: FuelCell Energy.
FuelCell Energy jumped 8% after the fuel-cell manufacturer announced a new contract with the largest steelmaker in South Korea, extending its relationship with the company by selling 5.6 megawatts of fuel-cell equipment in order to facilitate the construction of power plants within South Korea. The new order is in addition to ongoing supply contracts that will eventually add up to another 122 megawatts, and FuelCell had already completed a project for 59 megawatts earlier this year. The news validates FuelCell Energy's focus on larger fuel-cell installations, rather than the smaller generation-capacity applications that the company's rivals have emphasized in the past.
Source: Rackspace Hosting.
Rackspace Hosting rose more than 8% after announcing a 16% jump in revenue in its first quarter. Net income fell almost 7%, but that was still better than investors had expected from the cloud-computing specialist. Guidance for the second quarter was also favorable, suggesting Rackspace is finding ways to differentiate itself as a premium provider of cloud hosting services despite the raging price war among larger tech giants in the space. As long as Rackspace can convince customers that its service is worth paying up for, competition based solely on price isn't likely to succeed in taking away the company's market share.
Keurig Green Mountain climbed 7.5% as the maker of the popular Keurig home-brewing coffee and hot-beverage machine got a vote of confidence from partner Coca-Cola. After having made a previous 10% investment in Keurig Green Mountain, the soft-drink giant increased its stake to 16%. Rather than purchasing Keurig Green Mountain shares directly from the company, Coke will make purchases on the open market, potentially boosting the stock price even further. The strategic move puts even more pressure on Keurig Green Mountain to make sure that its planned Keurig Cold beverage carbonator launches successfully and promotes the company's overall growth.
