Walmart Helps the Dow

U.S. stocks rose to record highs today after Wal-Mart announced a massive buyback and Honeywell said it was splitting into two. Pfizer also contemplated a spin-off as Corporate America looked for ways to keep investors happy and keep this eight-year bull market going.

The Dow hit intraday and closing record highs, rising 69.61 points to 22,830.68. Wal-Mart contributed the most to the gains.

Didn’t earnings just end?  BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, is set to report third-quarter earnings and revenue Wednesday before the bell. Big banks such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are scheduled to report later this week.

I will be very interested to see how retail stocks behave this quarter. Earnings had better be exceptional for these stocks, or the XRT etf will implode.

FUN FACT

Just a moderate tax cut could contribute about $10 to the S&P 500’s consensus earnings per share. If this scenario becomes base-case, the S&P 500 could see targets of ~2,700-2800.

See you tomorrow.