Stocks rose on Thursday after a surprise profit from Alcoa sent materials names higher and generated an overall feeling that earnings season had gotten off to a strong start.   Read More

Following are the day’s biggest winners and losers. Find out why shares of Alpha Natural Resources and Wyndham Worldwide popped while Avis and Cephalon dropped.   Read More

Priceline.com was up 14% yesterday after beating Q2 earnings estimates on strong sales and bookings and guiding above expectations for its current third quarter. The company noted that its results have been and continue to be helped by strong demand for leisure travel this summer, which has been spurred by lower prices via heavy discounting.   Read More

On Friday, July 24th, the S&P 500’s 100-day moving average overtook its 200-day moving average, an event known to Wall Street technicians as a Golden Cross (a shorter-term average crossing a longer-term one, from below to above).  A month ago, we saw another Golden Cross, when the 50-day average moved above the 200-day average.   Read More