With so much going on in the real world today, I bet even daytraders looked up from their terminals now and again. We will know more, I presume, by the time of our next meeting. Not exactly a promise the Fed won't raise rates when it meets August 22. And the consumer confidence index rose in July, reversing about half of June's decline, as did existing home sales for the second month in a row. Fears of a too-strong economy certainly put a damper on things, but the earnings news was too good to ignore, and the markets ended up a bit.
Many investors fear the former, and the stock has taken a beating over the past year.
We argued the latter in our recent feature Bull's Eye Stocks . And today the company announced second-quarter profits of 57 cents a share, compared with 49 cents a year ago, topping Wall Street's grim expectation for 53 cents. Increased wireless sales get much of the credit. Today's healthy pharmaceutical news follows on the heels of Merck's strong report yesterday. Texas Instruments reported strong second-quarter growth after the markets closed yesterday, and the stock took off this morning.