Wall Street ends losing week with a gain
A three-day slump came to an end for blue chips on Friday as Johnson and Johnson announced it's breaking up.
The Dow rose 179 points. The S&P 500 added 33. The Nasdaq gained 156.
Johnson & Johnson grabbed the headlines. In the biggest shake-up in the the healthcare conglomerate's 135-year history, it will separate off its consumer health division known for brand names like Listerine, Band-Aid, and Johnson Baby Powder from its more profitable drugs and medical devices business. J&J is the third company this week to announce a split after General Electric and Japanese electronics giant Toshiba.
Aadil Zaman is a partner at Wall Street Alliance Group.
"So in this environment, it does make sense for sometimes companies that have big businesses that are diversified, if there are no synergies in between like for example, in the case of Johnson and Johnson, both the businesses are quite independent, so in that case, we do feel that it makes sense to split the business and to focus on your core competency. You know, right now the market is is at an all-time record high. So if a company is going to take a risk with trying something new, this would be the time to do it."
Shares of Johnson and Johnson ended the day higher.
But it was another down day for Tesla. Regulatory filings released Friday showed CEO Elon Musk made another stock sale this week. This time it was $700 million worth of Tesla shares, following his previous sale of $5 billion in stock. The world's richest man appears to be cashing in on a meteoric rise in Tesla shares, which brought the company to a $1 trillion market cap. Shares of Tesla shed nearly 3 percent.
In the latest economic news: Consumer sentiment plunged to a 10-year low, according to an early November reading by the University of Michigan. The culprit: soaring inflation.
In other data, Americans quit their job at a record rate in September and job openings remained near a record - above 6 million.
