Stocks are moving toward another day of gains today after President Obama indicated a willingness to reach a negotiated solution on the Syria conflict. A potential conflict in Syria has had stocks on edge for the past two weeks and, as tensions die down, the market is moving slowly higher. As of 3:15 p.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 0.69%, while the S&P 500 is up 0.18%.
One of the big gainers today is The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), which is up 1.4%. The only news today was that the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean will be pushed back from its summer 2015 slate, presumably for one year. Pirates is a highly valuable franchise to The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS), and the company needs some box office hits after the bomb of The Lone Ranger; but they may be on the way even without a Pirates sequel. Now that Disney owns Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, it has a stable of new movies already set for 2015, including Pixar’s Inside Out, a Marvel’s Avengers sequel, and the next Star Wars installment. This is just a reminder of what a media powerhouse The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has become, and those films will continue to drive content and theme-park revenue for years to come.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) was down 0.7% today, but it may have made the biggest splash on the Dow. The chipmaker and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced that the latest Chromebooks portable computer will be run on Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)’s Haswell processor. Toshiba and Asustek will also introduce Chrome-based computers using the chips, and HP and Acer are reportedly working on Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC)-Chrome computers, as well. These are huge wins considering the fact that Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) needs to expand in mobile, and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is the leader in that space.
The article Stocks Rise After Obama Tones Down Syria Talk originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Travis Hoium.
Fool contributor Travis Hoium manages an account that owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Google, Intel, and Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS). The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, Intel, and Walt Disney.
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