Editor’s note: This article was published yesterday, post market close.
With the first quarter’s earnings season essentially in the books, the bull run we’ve seen from the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past weeks ran out of fuel as the blue chips finished down slightly by 0.1%, or 19 points.
On a day with no major earnings releases or significant economic reports, acquisitions stole the headlines, specifically Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s purchase of the blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The deal represents CEO Marissa Mayer’s first major acquisition since taking the helm last year, and the blogging service brings Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) 300 million unique visitors a month, about half of which access the site through mobile devices. Elsewhere, drugmaker Actavis Inc (NYSE:ACT) said it would purchase Warner Chilcott Plc (NASDAQ:WCRX) in an all-stock transaction for $5 billion, and Internet security specialist Websense Inc. (NASDAQ:WBSN) jumped 29% after agreeing to be taken private by Vista Equity Group for $907 million. The deals helped pump some lifeblood into equities as the Dow was up as much 0.25% at midday, but the rally faded in the afternoon.
Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) led Dow stocks today, gaining 1.7%, though there was no major news out on the aluminum maker. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) has been one of the poorer performers among the blue chips lately, and is essentially flat this year while the Dow is up 17%. Investors may have been reacting to recent news that the manufacturer will cut 500 jobs at a plant in Quebec in order to alleviate excess capacity. The move will reduce production levelsby 2.5%. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) and the aluminum industry have suffered lately from low commodity prices, and the company had already idled 13% of its capacity.
Outside the Dow, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) received a slap on the wrist from Congress after a Senate investigation found that the tech giant employs a group of subsidiaries to help it avoid paying taxes. For example, an Irish subsidiary made a profit of $22 billion in 2011 but only paid $10 million in taxes. Though the tactics are legal, some in Congress consider them exploitative, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s CEO and other executives will speak before a Senate subcommittee tomorrow. The consequences of the investigation are not clear at this point, but they would seem to provide a further headache for a company already reeling after going from investor darling to dud in only a matter of months.
The article Dow Sputters as Rally Runs Out of Steam originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Jeremy Bowman.
Fool contributor Jeremy Bowman owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple.
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