After 20 consecutive winning Tuesdays, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI ) broke its streak today. When the closing bell rang, the blue-chip index was lower by 76 points, or 0.5%, and now sits at 15,177. The other major indexes, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, both also moved lower today, finishing down 0.55% and 0.58%, respectively. The streak, which started in mid-January, was quite amazing. Not counting today, since the beginning of the year, the Dow has risen 1,517 points on Tuesdays, which accounts for 71% of the index's gain year to date.
And while all streaks must come to an end, a few of the Dow's best-known companies attempted to keep it going for one more Tuesday.
A few Dow winners
Shares of Dow stalwart Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) rose higher by 1.49% today, after it was announced that the company will begin production in Myanmar with its first bottling plant there in more than six decades. Coke says it's one of the first U.S. companies to be granted an investment permit under the country's new foreign-investment law, which should help Coke in its battle with rival PepsiCo.
AT&T (NYSE: T ) saw shares rise by 1.71% today, making it the second best performing stock, just behind Merck's 2.04% rise. Now that interest rates have seemed to calm down, investors looking for yield are probably moving back into the 5.1%-dividend-yielding stock. The stock may have also gotten a boost from the announcement that Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S ) has postponed its shareholder vote on the SoftBank takeover, to give DISH Network more time to bring an offer to the table. This move may be a strategic one for Sprint, in hopes that the two companies will get into a bidding war, but ultimately it gives AT&T and Verizon more time to build their networks and get further ahead of Sprint. On the other hand, while it's likely that a deal will happen, neither one is going to be great from the eyes of AT&T shareholders.
Shares of Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS ) rose 0.86% today on news that the company has increased its admission rates. The business is currently booming, with new attractions driving attendance growth. The company's California Adventure saw attendance rise by 23% last year, while the top 25 parks worldwide saw an increase of 5.2%. With demand high, this seems like a great time to increase prices. Disney raised the cost of a single-day ticket at Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando from $89 to $95, while bumping up the price of a ticket at Disneyland in Anaheim from $87 to $92. This incremental increase will probably have a great effect on the company's bottom line in the coming quarters.
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