The Week In Review
2/9/09-2/13/09
February 13, 2009It's Friday the 13th. Stocks open lower on light volume ahead of a long holiday weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18 points to 7,913. The S&P 500 fell 3 points to 831. The Nasdaq Composite shed 5 points to 1,536. The financials are leading the markets lower. The British bank, Lloyds is down 30% after reporting a $12.3 billion loss. Bank of America is lower on a downgraded. BB&T is down 4% on concerns of a dividend cut. RBC made positive comments on Wells Fargo, but the stock is down 6%. The techs are mixed this morning. Rackable Systems and McAfee are higher on upgrades. Palm and Texas Instruments are higher on upgrades. Palm is up over 300% since November. Not bad. Apple was upgraded, however, the stock is lower. Netgear is down 2% after missing estimates by 15 cents. Research in Motion is down 3% on a downgrade. Other companies reporting earnings include Wyndam, Cheesecake Factory, and California Pizza. Wyndam and Cheesecake are both down over 9%. In the retail space, Abercrombie & Fitch is jumping 9% even though sales and profits declined. Microsoft is trading higher on news the company is entering the retail business. After the first half an hour, the Nasdaq moved back into the green. After the first hour, all the major averages were modestly in the green. Entering the lunch hour the Dow fell back in the red led by the financials. In the afternoon, the government announced President Obama would lay out a plan on Wednesday to mitigate foreclosures. Then the House voted to pass the stimulus package. Neither item did little to stimulate the markets entering the last hour. In fact, the averages sold off heading into the close. Oh boy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82 points to 7,850, giving the blue-chip index a weekly drop of 5.2%. The S&P 500 fell 8 points to 826, dropping 4.8% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite shed 7 points to 1,534 and declined 3.6% on the week.
February 12, 2009
U.S. stocks opened lower once again as better than expected retail data did little to boost investor confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 134 points to 7,805. Coke is one of the few Dow components trading higher after beating estimates by 3 cents. The S&P 500 dropped 16 points to 817. The Nasdaq Composite shed 23 points to 1,507. Plenty of bad earnings this morning. Viacom is down 2% on a 69% drop in net income. Management indicated no recovery in sight. Aetna is down 3% following a 57% drop in earnings. Marriott, Cedar Fair, Manulife, and Thomas Weisel are also lower following earnings. The diamond of the day goes to Buffalo Wild Wing up 26% on better than expected earnings. AnnTaylor is higher on an upgrade. A few techs are trading higher like Google, Apple, and Research in Motion. After the first half an hour the averages pushed lower. The Dow dropped 190 points. The Nasdaq declined 25 points. Through the morning the averages bounced off the lows on light volume. The stocks that were up this morning (select techs, retailers, and coke) are still positive. Aetna and Viacom have turned around moving into the green. During the lunch hour the Nasdaq moved into the green. The commodities have turned around, the healthcare sector looks good, and the techs are improving. The lunch hour rally didn't last. The averages sold back off toward the lows of the day. The financials look awful. Goldman Sachs is predicting more bank losses to come. Dow Chemical is lower after slashing their dividend. Entering the last hour the averages were heading toward the November lows when the government announced a plan for mortgage subsidies within the rescue package. That triggered a short covering rally within the financials. That's seems to be the only way we can rally now a days.
February 11, 2009
U.S. stocks opened higher on Wednesday, bouncing back from the worse day since the start of the new year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43 points to 7,932. Dow component, 3M is actually raising it's dividend. The S&P 500 index rose 6 points to 833, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 8 points to 1,533. The financials are bouncing back. Citigroup is up 5%, Bank of America is jumping 7%, and JP Morgan Chase is up 5%. The CEOs of the big banks will go infront of Congress this morning. National Financial Partners is up 43% on earnings. Unfortunately, the stock has a long ways to go. KeyCorp is up on insider buying. The earnings in the tech sector are mixed. Nvidia is down 6% after missing estimates. Research in Motion is down 15% after lowering guidance. Computer Science and Netsuite are higher following earnings. Applied Materials is unchanged on in-line earnings. Texas Instruments is lower after announcing production cuts. The news in the retail sector isn't getting any better. Macys is lower on a downgrade. Nike is lower after reducing head count. Jones Apparel is higher after reporting a quarterly loss. Other earning reports this morning include Reynolds America, Genesee Wyoming, Agrium, and Dean Foods. Agrium is up 5%, Dean Foods is up 8%, and Genesee Wyoming is down 10%. After the first hour, the rally fizzled. The Dow remained positive by 30 points. The Nasdaq is only up 2 points. After the first hour, the averages did rebound moving back to the highs of the day. During the lunch hour the averages pulled back, but remained in the green. The financials still look okay. All the bank stocks with CEOs infront of Congress are trading higher. The commodities are mixed. Gold closed up 3% to new recent highs while oil dropped for a fourth straight day. Entering the last hour, the averages started to rally once again. But that rally fizzled as well. At least the Senate and the House have agreed to changes on the stimulus package. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 50 points at 7,939. The S&P 500 rose 5 points to 833 while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 5 points to 1,525.
February 10, 2009
U.S. stocks on Tuesday started lower as investors worried about the government's response to the financial crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 63 points to 8,207. General Motors is one of the few Dow components trading higher even as they confirm plans to lay off 10,000 workers. The S&P 500 declined 7 points to 862 while the Nasdaq Composite shed 8 points to 1,583. Everyone is waiting for the Treasury's plan later this morning, the Senate vote on the stimulus in the afternoon, and a speech from Fed Chairman, Bernanke later in the day. The financials are quiet so far. UBS is up 11% even as they reported a big fourth quarter lossMiller-Coorsrs and Qwest both saw fourth quarter profits drop over 40% yet both stocks are up 6%. DirecTV is up 3% on a nice jump in fourth quarter earnings. Monsanto lowered guidance, but the stock is up 3%. In the tech sector, Intel is making news on plans to expand three U.S. manufacturing plants. Cisco System is selling $4 billion in senior debt sparking speculation the company will be making acquisitions in the future. After the first hour, the averages were holding up, but quickly reversed course. After the first hour, the Dow dropped over 100 points led by heavy selling in the financials. The Nasdaq declined 12 points. During the lunch hour the averages remained weak near the lows of the day. Very few stocks are in the green. The Senate passed the stimulus bill. No bounce in the averages. Then Fed Chairman Bernanke began his speak and the averages moved lower. The Dow dropped 350 points. The Nasdaq declined 58 points. The financials look awful. Bank of America is down 17%. KeyCorp and Suntrust are both down over 20%. The insurance stocks are getting hit once again. Here we go again. In the last hour, Geithner went infront of Congress and the Dow dropped over 400 points. I feel Wallstreet wants to send a message that the Treasurys' plan or outline is not enough. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 381 points, or 4.6%, to 7888. The S&P 500 declined 42 points, or 4.9%, to 827, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 66 points, or 4.2%, to end at 1,524.
February 9, 2009
Stocks opened lower Monday, with investors waiting on details of the bank rescue and seizing on a delay on the vote of the economic stimulus plan to take profits from last week's strong gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 46 points to 8,234. The S&P 500 index declined 4 points to 864 while the Nasdaq Composite fell 10 points to 1,581. The financials are modestly higher. The sector is in wait and see mode. The Treasury postponed their bank rescue plan until tomorrow. The insurance stocks are rebounding on optimism the sector will get included in the TARP program. Hartford is up 21% after getting clobbered on Friday. Barrons defended the company over the weekend. The commodities continue to perform well. Oils, fertilizers, and steels look good. The techs are trying to rally. Apple and Corning are higher on upgrades. Internet stocks, Google and Baidu are higher as well. Loews and their subsidiaries (Lorillard, Boardwalk Pipelines, and CNA Financial) all reported earnings this morning. Lorillard is the winner up 4%. Other companies reporting earnings include Big Lots, Hewitt Associates, and Hasbro. All three are up 7%. After the first hour the averages clawed back toward the unchanged level. Unitedhealth Group is higher on a positive article on Barrons. Through the morning the averages didn't waiver far from the unchanged level. In the afternoon, the averages dipped into the red, but the financials, commodities, and insurance stocks still look good. In the last hour the averages started in the red, then rallied back to the unchanged level. A whole bunch of nothing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 9 points at 8,270. The S&P 500 index rose a point to 869, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 15 cents to 1,591.