US Markets
U.S. stocks were up on Tuesday morning, with the S&P 500 hitting a record intraday high. The Dow gained 0.09% to 30,986, the S&P 500 index gained 0.07% to 3,858 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.26% to 13,671.
Gainers
• Twitter Inc (TWTR, Financial) +6.2%
• Kroger (KR, Financial) +3.7%
• Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX, Financial) +3.1%
• 3M Co (MMM, Financial) +2.8%
• ONEOK Inc (OKE, Financial) +0.8%
Losers
• Rockwell Automation Inc (ROK, Financial) -5.7%
• Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX, Financial) -5.3%
• Masco Corp (MAS, Financial) -2.8%
• Verizon Communications Inc (VZ, Financial) -2.7%
• Xerox Holdings Corp (XRX, Financial) -3.4%
• AES Corp (AES, Financial) -3.6%
Global Markets
The main European stock markets traded in the green. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.44%, Germany's Dax rose 1.99%, France's CAC 40 gained 1.45% and Spain's Ibex 35 jumped 1.32%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.96%, India's BSE Sensex slid 1.09%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 2.55% and China's Shanghai Composite was down1.51%.
General Electric releases earnings report
Shares of General Electric Company (GE, Financial) gained more than 6% on Tuesday morning after the company announced financial results for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. It posted earnings per share of 8 cents, falling short of analysts' estimates by 1 cent, on revenue of $21.9 billion, which declined 16.5% year-over-year and beat expectations by $280 million.
CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr had the following to say:
"As 2020 progressed, we significantly improved GE's profitability and cash performance despite a still-difficult macro environment. The fourth quarter marked a strong free cash flow finish to a challenging year, reflecting the results of better operations as well as strong and improving orders in Power and Renewable Energy."
In the fourth quarter, orders increased 26% at the gas power-equipment business to $5.6 billion and by 34% at the renewable energy units to $6.3 billion. The aviation segment suffered the deepest sales decline, down 35% to $5.8 billion.
Looking ahead the full-year 2021, the company expects industrial revenues to grow organically in the low-single-digit range. It also projects an adjusted industrial profit margin to expand organically by 250-plus basis points.,with an adjusted earnings per share between 15 and 25 cents. The outlook "is dependent on the commercial aviation market recovery accelerating in the second half of 2021 as well as the timing of aircraft deliveries."
General Electric shares have advanced almost 3% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 2.4%.
At the end of December, T Rowe Price Equity Income Fund (Trades, Portfolio) reduced its investment in the stock by 0.3% to 41,275,000 shares.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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