Shares in United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) were up by more than 2.5% midday today. As fellow writer Lou Whiteman noted earlier in the week, UPS is a company and a stock that tends to track investor sentiment about the economy. When investors feel good about the economy and the market, UPS performs well; when they feel more pessimistic, UPS declines.
There's an obvious logic here. More economic output means more parcel deliveries, which means more volume for package delivery firms, and vice versa.
That said, Shakira's hips and the earnings-per-share numbers don't lie. In other words, if UPS can partially overcome volume pressures and continue to grow revenue and earnings, then the stock will be rewarded.
Source Fool.com