Dow Jones Industrial Average Today: Your 5 Must-Read Stories

For the fourth straight trading session, U.S. stocks climbed on news that General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and other companies beat quarterly expectations.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average today fell 16 points to 16,408.5; the S&P 500 gained 2.5 points to 1,864.8; the Nasdaq rose 9.2 points to 4,095.5.

Here's your recap of today's major market events:

    dow Jones Industrial Average Today

  1. Insider Trading at BP: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a senior BP (NYSE ADR: BP) employee with insider trading, after he dumped shares in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon. Keith A. Seilhan, who spearheaded the company's cleanup from the Gulf oil spill, allegedly dumped the shares after he learned of the extent of the spill, before it was officially reported. At the time, it was publicly reported that the spill was expanding at a rate of about 5,000 barrels per day, while BP's private estimates were closer to 50,000 barrels per day. In dumping his family-owned shares, Seilhan avoided a 48% stock loss, equal to about $100,000.
  2. Another Money Service: Another titan is going to enter the money transfer sector. On Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced plans to create its own domestic money transfer service called "Walmart-2-Walmart." The strategic partnership with Ria Money Transfer will directly compete against Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU). Wal-Mart will begin its service on April 24. The new service allows consumers to transfer money across the company's 4,000 retail centers. Western Union is already feeling the impact. Its shares slipped by 4.5% this afternoon.
  3. Manufacturing Rises: The Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing index in the regional factory sector hit 16.6 in April, reaching its highest point since September 2013. The data is a strong bounce from the 9.0 in March and -6.3 in February. The Philly Fed had previously stated the impact of winter weather on business activity in the region in previous statements.
  4. Go Directly to Jail: Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) director Rajat Gupta will begin a two-year prison term for insider trading on June 17. A U.S. District Judge in New York City ordered Gupta to surrender by 2:00 p.m. that day. Gupta was convicted in June 2012 of four criminal felony counts of conspiracy and securities fraud. In addition to a two-year sentence, he will have an extra year of supervised release and will pay $5 million in fines.
  5. That's A Lot of Brew: Bud Light was the best-selling beer in the United States in 2013, and it wasn't even close in the great beer race. According to Information Resources' data on cases of beer sold by brand, type, and percent of total sales, one in five beers sold last year was Anheuser-Busch's (NYSE: BUD) light beer. According to the Vox.com, Bud Light represented 20.07% of total case sales. Second place went to Molson Coors Brewing Co.'s (NYSE: TAP) beer Coors Light at 8.07%. Given Bud Light's huge surge in sales, the company has rewarded its advertising agency BBDO, a subsidiary of Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC), with the accounts of every Bud Light extension, including Bud Light Platinum and Bud Light Lime. Shares of Anheuser Busch hit a 52-week high on Thursday.

The markets are closed tomorrow for Good Friday, so we'll be back on Monday at our regularly scheduled time...

Thursday's Top Three Profit Opportunities

  1. These Stocks Will Prosper Regardless of Obamacare's Fate: The Affordable Healthcare Act is the largest and most fundamental change to hit the healthcare sector in decades. Not only that, but Wall Street is currently trying to pick the winners from the losers - and frankly it isn't doing a particularly good job of it. If you want to profit from the healthcare law, follow these companies...
  2. These CEOs Will Make You Rich: Some of the most important of Bill Patalon's personal investment maxims have to do with leadership and a company's management team. And leadership starts with the CEO. As one of Bill's precepts holds, "A good CEO can create a very strong company. But a great CEO can create an empire." This includes these great leaders who will make you rich...
  3. Get Your Share of an Extra Trillion Euros: The U.S. Fed began winding down its latest QE program (for now), and the baton's been passed to Japan with its own massive easing campaign. But lack of inflation and concerns about outright deflation are again gripping Europe. So the latest "noise" from the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB) is signaling that Europe is about to crank up its own printing press. While the implications may be serious, the profit opportunities are even bigger...

About the Author

Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.

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