The waiting is over—today, several companies released financial results for the prior quarter and so far, so good. JPMorgan Chase and Co (NYSE: JPM), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and CSX Corp (NYSE: CSX) all released positive financial results and cheered investors into staging a major midday rally (click on each company to open their financial results in another window). As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained as much as 134 points after 2PM. The extent of the rally couldn’t be sustained and the Dow did drop by market close, but it still managed a 75.76 point gain for the day, bringing it to 11,096.16. The Nasdaq gained 23.31 points to 2,441.23 and the S&P rose 8.34 points to 1,178.11.
In other good economic news, the Mortgage Bankers Association released their Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week of October 3rd. The report results (which you can access here) show that mortgage applications increased by 14.6 percent. The refinance volume of applications also increased, but mortgage applications are a better indication of economic change as they show that more families are attempting to buy new homes.
Both Asian and European markets were up today.
Other stocks in the news: Wal Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT), Monsanto Co (NYSE: MON).
