Bank of America, GE Prod Dow Jones Forward

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded from the opening, up almost 103
points to over 11,508, a gain of about 0.9%. Strong earnings, inflation data and
news that Germany would work closely to assist Greece had traders willing to buy
riskier assets. Fitch also reaffirmed its AAA credit rating for the United
States. For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 7.3%. It
has also regained its losses for the year, down only about 0.5% now for 2011.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC ) was up again on news of an asset sale, rising about
12 cents to over $7.50, a jump of more than 1.6%. Bank of America is in
negotiations to sell real estate assets from its Merrill Lynch unit to
Blackstone for a reported $1 billion. Earlier this month, Bank of America sold
its Canadian credit card unit to TD Dominion. It also was released this morning
that Bank of America is moving to reach agreements with the state attorney
general from New York and others in its continuing effort to settle mortgage
probes. General Electric (NYSE: GE ) was turning on the power with a nearly 2%
early rise, around 30 cents, to over $16.50. Down more than 11% for the month,
General Electric is up more than 1% for the week and almost 7% for the year.
Strong revenues had Home Depot (NYSE: HD ) continuing to rise, up about 2.2% per
share to over $33.90, gaining more than 80 cents. Wall Street is favoring Home
Depots direction over Lowes, which has share prices for HD up almost 10% for the
week. Home Depot reported higher second-quarter earnings of 14%. Investors can
hear Verizon (NYSE: VZ ) better now that it announced expansion of its 4G
network, ringing in early-action gains of more than 60 cents, better than 1.75%,
to about $35.50 a share. Verizon also announced it was taking a harder line with
its striking workers. Although good numbers have it up almost 3% for the week,
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT ) was down about 0.33% in morning trade to under $51.60, a
drop of more than 20 cents. Investors still have concerns about flagging
same-store sales for Wal-Mart in the United States, as well as low consumer
confidence. For the year, Wal-Mart is up almost 5%. Down more than 2.3% was
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ ) to under $31.90 a share, a loss of about 75 cents.
BMO downgraded Hewlett-Packard this morning, citing lower growth expected for
the personal computer market. Dell released poor numbers this morning, which has
the entire tech sector down, confirming the lower sales projections. For the
week, Hewlett Packard is up more than 3.4%. Jonathan Yates does not own any of
the stocks mentioned in this article.