HEXUS.sharewatch: Ingram’s shares plunge as rally stalls

In last week's HEXUS.sharewatch we observed that indices for the main US stock markets - the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ - were both at their highest levels since around the time stock markets plummeted, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

The Dow topped 9,000 last week and the NASDAQ looked set to break the psychologically significant 2,000 mark. It did - briefly - last Thursday, before closing just short once more, as some less positive earnings put the brakes on the rally that started in the middle of last month.

One of the contributing quarterly earnings announcements may well have been that of broadline distributor Ingram Micro, which saw its profits more than halve from the same period a year ago on revenue down by a quarter. This was below analyst expectations, hence the fall in its share price.

On a more positive note, giant system builders Apple and HP both had a decent week and most of the falls were slight. In London, the FTSE 100 is up over 1.5 percent at time of writing on the announcement of hefty profits from the banking giants Barclays and HSBC.