Stocks Rise; Yellen Testimony, Greece in Focus

U.S. Market
Stocks rose this morning as Janet Yellen addressed Congress.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said this morning that the economy is improving as she laid the groundwork for a potential rate increase this year. She said that that the central bank may drop its assurance that it will be “patient” when it comes to rate increase, but that any future move is still data dependent.

The European Commission, the ECB and the IMF approved Greece’s four-month bailout extension today after the country submitted a list of reforms that were in line with expectations. Eurozone members must also approve the deal, which is expected to happen this week. Greek stocks and bonds soared on the news.

Home prices rose 0.1% in December from the previous month according to the Case-Shiller 20-city index. Prices were up 4.5% year-over-year. San Francisco’s 9.3% year-over-year gain was the highest while Chicago was in the rear with a 1.3% increase.

At midday the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 0.4%, 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

Stocks on the Move
Shares of Home Depot (HD) were up over 3% this morning after the firm posted better-than-expected quarterly results and provided full-year 2015 guidance. The company's 2015 outlook and capital-allocation plan includes top-line growth of 3.5%-4.7% (including foreign exchange headwinds), comp-store sales growth of 3.3%-4.5%, earnings per share of $5.11-$5.17, and share repurchases of $4.5 billion.

Comcast's (CMCSK) fourth-quarter results displayed several of the same themes seen throughout the year, with the cable business producing solid results while ratings pressures hurt growth within the NBC Universal cable network segment. Comcast added 6,000 television customers during the quarter, which is modestly disappointing given the firm’s recent performance but still solid relative to cable peers within this very mature business. More important, Internet access customer growth remains very strong, with 375,000 net additions. Shares were 1.8% on the report.

Express Scripts (ESRX) exited a tumultuous 2014 on a high note as it reported solid fourth-quarter results and seems to have almost fully recovered from its recent operational missteps. Revenue grew 2.1% year over year and represents the first year-over-year quarterly top-line increase since the first quarter of 2013. Throughout 2014, revenue growth trended up and finally broke into positive territory during the quarter. All profit measures also increased, as gross margin expanded 43 basis points to 8.0% and operating margin rose 116 basis points to 6.6%. Shares were up 2.3% at midday.

Foreign Markets
European markets moved higher as Greece remained in focus. In late trading, the FTSE 100 and Paris CAC were each up 0.5% while Germany’s DAX was 0.7% higher.

Asian markets were mixed. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.8%, the Nikkei 225 was 0.7% higher while the Hang Seng was down 0.4%.