The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was essentially flat today, battered by Apple‘s (AAPL) 12.4% decline. Without Apple’s fall, the S&P would have seen a 0.47% gain. The index rose 0.01 point, technically enough to take it to a new multi-year high of 1,494.82 — its highest closing level since Dec. 26, 2007. Even with Apple’s swoon, the S&P poked above 1,500 briefly this morning.
Unburdened by Apple, the Dow Jones Industrial Average enjoyed a better day, gaining 46 points, or 0.33%, to close at 13,825.33, its highest level since Oct. 31, 2007. The Russell 2000 index hit a new all-time record close of 900.19, after seeing a 0.39% gain during the session.
Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) are up 3.5% after it reported a 13% rise in fiscal first-quarter profit and said global same-store sales rose 6% year-on-year.
Boeing (BA) stock is down about 0.4% in evening trades after gaining 1.4% today. US investigators said they’re still uncertain what caused the fire on a 787 Dreamliner earlier this month.
Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told a packed news conference in Washington that “we still have to figure out why those events occurred” inside the battery “and what initiated them.”
More than two weeks after the event�and despite a global investigation that has two shifts of safety board staffers delving into what happened�Ms. Hersman emphasized it’s “still a very open question” whether internal battery problems or some type of external electrical malfunction caused the blaze on the ground at Boston’s Logan International Airport. The safety board disclosed that the fire�though contained in a relatively small space�was so intense that it took firefighters more than an hour-and-a-half to fully extinguish.
In other corporate news, Bloomberg has a report which suggests that Verizon (VZ) could be primed to take control of Verizon Wireless from Vodafone Group (VOD).
Almost 14 years after forming the Verizon Wireless joint venture, now may be an opportune time for Vodafone to sell its 45 percent stake to gain cash to help shore up its business in Europe, said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., which estimates the holding is valued at more than $115 billion. New York-based Verizon Communications, with a market capitalization of $122 billion, also could acquire Vodafone to gain full control of the venture and its 98 million customers, and then sell off the international assets, said New Street Research.
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