After Market Updates

Ultimately, the stock market gave back some of its gains this afternoon. The S&P 500 closed at 1,362.21 which was just shy of the post-crash high close of 1,363.61 from May 2nd of last year.

Today’s market was split between large-cap stocks which fared the best and small-cap stocks which fared the worst. The small-cap Russell 2000 was down 0.66% today while the S&P 500 was up 0.98 points or 0.07%. The mega-cap S&P 100 was up 0.27%.

Interestingly, shares of Apple ($AAPL) gained $12.73 or 2.54%. That’s a market cap gain of $11.87 billion. Each point in the S&P 500 is worth $9.05 billion. That means that Apple’s gain was worth 1.31 points in the S&P 500. The index gained 0.98 points so without Apple, the index would have closed just slightly lower today.

In Buy List news, Johnson & Johnson‘s ($JNJ) CEO resigned:

William C. Weldon, who presided over Johnson & Johnson during one of the most tumultuous periods in its history, will step down as chief executive in April, the company announced Tuesday.

Alex Gorsky, head of the medical device and diagnostics business, will take over as chief executive. Mr. Weldon will remain as chairman.

The news of Mr. Weldon’s retirement comes as Johnson & Johnson has struggled to emerge from a swarm of product recalls, manufacturing lapses and government inquiries that tarnished the name of a company that was once one of the nation’s most trusted household brands. In 2010, the company recalled millions of bottles of liquid children’s Tylenol and other medications, as well as tens of thousands of artificial hips and millions of contact lenses.

Much of the blame for Johnson & Johnson’s stumbles fell on Mr. Weldon, the son of a Broadway stagehand and seamstress who became chief executive in 2002 after spending his entire career at the company. Critics said the company’s once-vaunted attention to quality slipped under his watch. The company said in a statement that neither Mr. Weldon nor Mr. Gorsky was available for comment.

Oracle ($ORCL) was downgraded by JMP Securities. They’re paring back their earnings estimates but they add that the stock is not unreasonably valued.

WSJ‘s “Market Beat” notes that DirecTV ($DTV) may soon join the streaming bandwagon.

Posted by on February 21st, 2012 at 9:54 pm


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