Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
A strong 2012 start for U.S. stocks may bode well for the rest of the year - historically, the full year is a positive one nearly 70 percent of the time following a positive first day.
Tuesday marked the fourth straight year the S&P 500 has begun the year with a gain of 1 percent or more, and the Dow closed at its highest level since July 26.
Though the results are not expected to directly move the markets, investors will no doubt be talking about the photo finish at the Iowa caucuses, where Mitt Romney beat rival GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum by a razor-thin margin of eight votes.
The nation’s automakers are in the spotlight today, as they release their December U.S. sales numbers.
Edmunds.com estimates that final 2011 sales will amount to 12.8 million, which would be an approximately 10 percent increase over 2011.
For December, Chrysler is seen posting the biggest year over year sales gain of the major automakers, up about 37 percent.
The only other economic report out today is the government’s reading on factory orders for November, expected to rise 2.1 percent after an October drop of 0.4 percent.
We’ll also get two weeks worth of data on mortgage applications from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which was closed for the holidays and did not put out its usual release last week.
The regular Wednesday report on oil and gasoline inventories from the Energy Department will not be out today – it’s delayed until tomorrow, as is usually the case in weeks that contain a holiday.
We’ll watch shares of municipal bond insurer MBIA (MBI) today, after it rallied into the close Tuesday on news that it can pursue fraud claims against Bank of America’s (BAC) Countrywide Credit unit.
Eastman Kodak (EK) also makes the watch list, as it falls out of compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing requirements. Kodak will have six months to regain compliance.
Commercial Metals (CMC) is in the spotlight once again, as the company urges shareholders not to tender their shares to Carl Icahn, who’s offering $15 per share.
The company says Icahn’s offer is “not in the best interests of CMC shareholders”.
Networking company Acme Packet (APKT) was a big after-hours loser, falling 19% on a cut in guidance for the networking company.
TiVo (TIVO) went the opposite way, jumping 18% after hours as it announces a settlement of patent litigation with AT&T (T).
The website AllThingsD reports that Yahoo (YNOO) is set to name a new permanent CEO to replace the ousted Carol Bartz, with Scott Thompson names as the most likely candidate. Thompson is currently the president of eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal unit.
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