tug of war dogs

Microsoft up. Apple down. What year is this?
First the scoreboard:

Dow: 13,029.2, +65.1, +0.5%

S&P 500: 1,378.5, +1.6, +0.1%

NASDAQ: 3,000.4, -7.1, -0.2%

And now the top stories:

  • Global markets ended a shaky week on a relatively positive note.  European markets were pleased to hear that an official read on German business confidence came in better-than-expected.  All eyes will be on this weekend's French presidential election. 

  • There was no notable economic data worth reporting today.  There was however a ton of Q1 earnings announcements.

  • Microsoft was the big winner today.  Last night, the tech behemoth reported Q1 EPS of $0.60 on revenue of $17.41 billion.  Both numbers beat analysts' expectations.  The biggest surprise was the 4 percent jump in Windows revenue, which could mean that the PC isn't dead quite yet. 

  • Maybe Microsoft's announcement was behind today's pullback in Apple shares.  Apple's gigantic presence in the S&P 500 has caused the index to diverge a bit from the Dow.  But with the selling in the last few days, the two indices may be coming back in line. 

  • GE was another winner on a strong earnings announcement.  One big area of strength was its energy infrastructure business, which jumped 18 percent year-over-year to $11.1 billion.

  • Chipotle Mexican Grill announced a monster quarter driven by a 12.7 percent jump in same-store sales. Today's sell-off belies that fact that almost everyone agrees that the burrito makers blew out expectations in every way.  Deutsche Bank's Jason West believes that the most important surprise in Chipotle's report was the wild success of the companies new Asian-themed restaurant ShopHouse. 


  • McDonald's announced earnings right in line with Wall Street's expectations.  The fast-food giant generated $6.54 billion in sales during the quarter with EPS of $1.23.