S&P 500 Hits Session High (AAPL, X, AKS, NFLX, UPS)
The S&P 500 extended its rally and continued to stay above four-year highs on Monday and just less than 10% below from its record high of 1,565.15 set on October 9, 2007.. Today’s rally is largely driven by Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL), which has decided to pay dividend and buybacks for the first time since December 1995 or first time after going public. S&P 500(INDEXSP:.INX) was recently higher by 10 pints to session high. Following are the top movers on the index:-
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) climbed 1.70% to $595.54. The Company said that it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share starting in the period July 1. In addition, the Company will buy back $10 billion of its stock and returning some of its $97.6 billion in cash and investments to shareholders. This is due to demand for iPhones and iPads that boosted the earnings.
Large number of steel companies are trading higher after recent falls as analysts’ bet that prices of steel are bottoming out, which should improve the profitability of the sector. United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) shares soared 7.40% to $31.95, extending its weekly gain to about 19%, AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) also rose 4.75% after the company announced that its subsidiary, AK Steel Corporation, has commenced a registered offering of $250 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2022.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares gained 4.23% on expectations that the company’s partnership with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) would boost the company’s revenue following the launch of new iPad and upcoming Apple Tv.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) rose 4% to $81.54 after hitting new 52-week high of $81.60 earlier in the session. The the courier company agreed to acquire Netherlands based delivery service provider TNT Express N.V. for $6.8 billion. UPS will pay approx $12.50 in cash per share.