Stock Market News for October 19, 2010

Citigroup’s upbeat earnings report and better-than-expected news from the homebuilding front sent markets higher on Monday. Citigroup’s earnings helped push financials up more than 2%.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 81 points, or 0.7%, to 11143.69. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index added nearly 12 points, or 0.5%, to 2480.66. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 8.52 points, or 0.7%, to close at 1184.71.

Citigroup (NYSE:C), which said loan defaults fell during the quarter, led financial sector shares higher after reporting better-than-expected results. Its shares rose 5.6% to $4.17. Citigroup’s results sent Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) up 5.5% to 24.87. JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) rose 2.8% to $38.20. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) gained 3.4% to $12.54. KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) rose 3.4% to $8.30. Meanwhile, Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) announced that it will resume foreclosures in 23 states by October 25. Pointing to the ugly side of the ensuing foreclosure crisis, JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM), in a note to clients, warned of foreclosure errors that could cost the industry as much as $120 billion.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) failed to encourage investors with its numbers. The firm reported signed service contracts fell 7% and its shares closed off 1.3% yesterday. In pre-market trading, the shares are trading off 3.4%. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is off 2.1% in trading before the bell on reports its Chief Software Architect, who replaced Bill Gates five years ago, plans to retire from the firm.

Oilfield services company Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) reported earnings that misses analysts’ projections. The company said it continued to experience strength in North American markets. Its shares fell 4.8% to $34.09.

Bond prices also rose and yields dropped. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note dropped to 2.51% from 2.57% late Friday.

As the earning season gets to its peak, such heavyweights as Bank of America, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Bank of NY Mellon (NYSE:BK), Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG), New York Times (NYSE:NYT) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) come out with their numbers today.

Of the S&P500's ten industry sectors, only consumer services failed to register an advance, off 0.1%, as financials (+2.1%), topped advancers. Oil and gas, utilities and health care shares closed up 0.8%, telecom (+0.5%), tech (+0.4%), consumer goods (0.3%), and basic materials and industrials up 0.2%.

Stocks in Asia closed with gains this morning, with the Shanghai Composite index in Mainland China closing up 1.6% after Beijing's new, 5-year economic plan boosted energy shares. The Hang Seng ended the day up 1.3% and the Nikkei 225-stock average closed up 0.4%.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), up 1.0% in Monday's trade, is currently trading close to 5% lower pre-market, after reporting better-than-expected earnings and upside fiscal first quarter guidance. Investors, however, were not impressed with iPad sales figures. The company’s estimate that it sold 4.2 million units of touchscreen iPad tablets was below Street estimates of 5 million.

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Read the full analyst report on IBM

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