Cisco wasn’t the only stock to spark what many market pros were quietly calling a suckers’ rally.
General Electric joined in the game of boosting its market value by trying to get investors excited.
Out of the blue yesterday, GE boss Jeff Immelt said the world’s biggest company is “on track” to meet the 2002 consensus earnings estimate.
At 11:16 a.m., when the Dow was already up 200 points, GE issued a press release with Immelt’s bullish outlook.
It is obviously good news, but it’s not news. Last month, Immelt said the same thing.
“Thanks, Jeff, we were all so worried that something had changed in the past two weeks,” joked Tom Reynolds, an analyst with Schaeffer’s Investment Research.
It turns out GE was simply acting under the new “Fair Disclosure” rules. Because Immelt made those comments to Wall Street analysts yesterday, the company issued the press release to ensure other investors would know.
Although GE had a good day yesterday, Reynolds pointed out that GE has been underperforming its peers in the Dow since last June.
In the past 52 weeks, GE lost 32 percent of its value.
It hasn’t improved this year. Since the beginning of the year, GE is down 18 percent.
And many pros think GE is going even lower.
The number of GE shares sold short has increased 76 percent since January, said Reynolds.
But clearly some investors fell for GE’s game.
GE advanced $2.20 to $32.85 yesterday.