Market Wrap-Up for Mar.19 (BBY, KO, POT, HON, CVS, more)

in Gold Gold Investment by admin — March 19, 2010 1:11 pm | no comments

The market opened to the upside, but options expiration related activity reversed many stocks to the downside. We closed the day lower, but off the lows by a bit. There were 5.21 Billion shares traded on the NYSE and shares over 2.83 Billion shares traded on the NASDAQ. There was little out in the way of earnings, but there were several Wall Street downgrades pushing stocks like CVS ( CVS ) and Martin Marietta Materials ( MLM ) down. Best Buy ( BBY ) bucked the trend and traded in the green after Goldman Sachs raised the stock to a buy. Other stocks that performed admirably in a down tape, included Honeywell ( HON ) , Coca Cola ( KO ) and Aetna ( AET ) . Commodity-related stocks led the action to the downside, with Massey Energy ( MEE ) , Schnitzer Steel ( SCHN ) , Potash ( POT ) , and Baker Hughes ( BHI ) . As we look ahead to next week, we will be getting earnings results from the likes of Tiffany ( TIF ) , Darden Restaurants ( DRI ) , Accenture [[ACN], and more. Don’t forget to check out this weekend’s premium articles featuring our various dividend stock watchlists. Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .