Bernanke Stands Ready, Stocks Drop, Retail Sinks

By | TradingMarkets.com | November 14, 2008 05:30 PM
Symbols: INTC, JPM, SHLD, AGO

Stocks closed down today, after a late day rally breaking into positive territory fizzled on a massive 2.8% drop in retail spending, the largest since the terrorism fear of 2001. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke stated, at the Frankfurt conference, that he stands ready to lower rates and do whatever it takes to solve the crisis. The DJIA ended the day down -337.94 to 8497.31, the Nasdaq fell -79.85 to 1516.85 and the broad based S&P 500 gave back -38.00 to 873.29 ending two straight weeks of losses.



JPMorgan ( JPM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Fell 7.31% or $2.72 to $34.72 as the investment banking behemoth writes down assets and lowers profit estimates.


Intel ( INTC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Consumers cutting back on spending led the chip maker to a 7.69% or $1.11 decline to $13.32/share.


Sears ( SHLD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Dipped 14.10% or $6.28 to $38.27/share on the shockingly low retail figures.


Assured Guaranty ( AGO | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Climbed 4.32% or 0.35 cents to $8.45/share after the bond insurer agreed to purchase Dexia financial for $722 million.



Oil fell $1.20 to $56.36, gold gained $37.50 to $742.50 and the VIX spiked 10.83% to $66.31.









Market Snapshot
















Dow

-337.94 8497.31








NASDAQ

-79.85 1516.85






S&P 500

-38.00 873.29












Economic
News










Initial Claims: (Nov 08): Consensus 479K, Prior NA


Trade Balance (Sep): Consensus -$56.8B, Prior -$59.1B


Treasury Budget (Oct): Consensus -$92.0B, Prior -$55.6B


Export Prices ex-ag. (Oct) Consensus NA, Prior NA


Import Prices ex-oil (Oct) Consensus NA, Prior NA


Retail Sales (Oct): Consensus -1.2%, Prior -1.2%


Retail Sales (Oct): Consensus -0.9%, Prior -0.6%


Business Inventories (Sep): Consensus 0.2%, Prior0.3%


Mich Sentiment-Prel. (Nov): Consensus 57.0, Prior 57.6




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Read David's latest thoughts on his blog, www.marketsurfer.com
Original publication: November 14, 2008

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