October has always been a scary month for the stock market, with the crashes of 1929 and 1987 occurring in the same month as Halloween. Still, investors weren’t too afraid to send stocks higher on Thursday, building on the momentum of a strong third quarter of 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^ DJI), S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^ GSPC) and Nasdaq composite all have gained ground, although to varying degrees.
Today’s stock exchange
|
Index |
Percent change |
Point change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
+ 0.13% |
+35 |
|
S&P 500 |
+ 0.53% |
+18 |
|
Nasdaq composite |
+1.42% |
+159 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
The news took some individual actions much higher. Rocket (NYSE: RKT) benefited from a strategic partnership announcement, while The group of container stores (NYSE: TCS) got a lot of mileage from a top product placement.
Image source: Getty Images.
Rocket lifts housing
Rocket shares rose 14% on Thursday. The company that runs the online home loan service Rocket Mortgage made a smart move by partnering with a housing industry giant.
Rocket has entered into an agreement with real estate listing site Realtor.com to increase the visibility of the mortgage company to potential buyers. Under the terms of the agreement, Realtor.com will place advertisements on its website that will direct those interested in obtaining pre-approval for mortgage financing directly to Rocket Mortgage’s online application platform.
Even with the economy going through recessionary conditions, the housing market remains extremely strong. One good reason is the extremely low interest rate environment, which makes mortgage financing much cheaper to obtain. Low rates mean lower monthly payments, which can also lead to higher house prices.
Rocket shares have been turbulent since its IPO earlier this summer. Shareholders hope the partnership with Realtor.com will drive even more traffic to the mortgage specialist and help further strengthen its growth.
All the press is good for The Container Store
Elsewhere, shares of The Container Store Group rose 25% on Thursday. The Organizational Goods Retailer may be the last business you think has video streaming ties to it, but that’s what’s behind a report on Container Store today.
the New York Post wrote a feature article on the success of a show called Get organized with The Home Edit, which started operating on Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) last month. The article noted that Container Store worked with the show’s creators to release the exclusive Home Edit Collection, a product line sold exclusively at the organizational retailer.
As Fool contributor Rich Duprey noted earlier today, the news doesn’t appear to justify a 25% rise in stock prices. It is also possible that part of the gain will come from the success of industry peers. Bed bath and beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY), which announced much better results than expected.
Even with the gains, Container Store remains 80% below its peak in the early to mid-2010s. It will take a lot of promotional offers for the organizational goods specialist to regain its former glory.
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