The markets finished with mixed gains Tuesday as earnings reports continue to be the focus. The Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM) was the leader today gaining 2.00% but the other markets weren't that far behind. The Dow gained 282 (1.78%) and the S&P 500 posted a 26 point gain (1.41%). The Nasdaq posted a 49 point gain today (1.09%) but was held back today by Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) which sold off 1.30%, and a few other names that couldn't spark a rally today. All eyes will be on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) this afternoon as they report earnings. In the news today was defense company Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) as they announced that it will move one of its IT businesses to another holding. This move has been a long time in the works and the board has been aiming to move LMT back towards their core business of aerospace and defense. Shares finished down 0.51% which was well off its lows of the day.
Popular fashion retailer Coach (NYSE: COH) popped 9.82% today after the company reported improving sales. This puts to rest the skeptics that are concerned about the likes of Michael Kors (NASDAQ: KORS) and others eating into their business. The company says that sales rose for the first time in 10 quarters while revenue increased 4.4%. Technical traders note that today's pop puts it right back at the January 5th resistance.
Lastly, the usually slow moving stockSprint (NYSE: S) had a very strong day today as it gained 18.65%. The news comes after earnings results that reported a smaller than expected loss. This is due to the consistent cost cutting Sprint has been working on over the last year. Although they posted a net loss of $0.21 per share this comes in less than expected leading investors to believe the company's cost cutting is going well.
In other news, Oil posted a strong day today up 3.5% and at one point had almost erased all of yesterdays losses. Gold and Silver popped to new 2016 highs today gaining 1.54% and 1.90% respsectively sending gold stocks higher and gold ETFMarket Vectors Gold Miners (NYSE: GDX) soaring 4.41%.
As we stated above, today after the close will be Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) turn to release their Q4 earnings. Any strong after hours move will set the tone for tomorrows trade.