Greece’s Debt Downgraded, Stocks Drop, Bearish Economic News

A downgrade of Greece’s debt by Moody’s brought the bears roaring out of their caves today. Stocks dropped sharply on the international downgrade and negative domestic economic figures. However, the stock market ended the day well off their lows. An ^AAPL^ 4-1 split rumor was the catalyst for the intraday bullish fever. The DJIA gave back -53.13 to 10321.03, the tech heavy Nasdaq dipped -1.68 to 2234.22 and the broad based S&P 500 fell -2.31 to 1102.93.

^FITB^: Shares dropped 3.86% or 49 cents to $12.20 after being downgraded at Citigroup to “hold”.

^MS^: Fell .32% or 9 cents to $27.74/share after stating it plan to sell its 34% holdings in a Chinese affiliate, since the Chinese government will not allow it to hold a controlling interest.

^PALM^: Plummeted 19.28% or $1.56 to $6.53/share after missing analysts estimates.

^CCE^: Soared 32.85% or $6.30 to $25.48/share after Coca Cola said it will buy the company.

Oil fell $1.71 to $78.29, gold increased by $11.20 to $1108.10 and the VIX index fell 0.84% to 20.10.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

-53.13 10,321.03

NASDAQ

-1.68 2,234.22

S&P 500

-2.31 1,102.93
Economic
News

Case-Shiller 20-city Index (Dec): Consensus: -3.1%, Prior: -5.3%

Consumer Confidence (Feb): Consensus: 55.0, Prior: 55.9

New Home Sales (Jan): Consensus: 355K, Prior: 342K

Crude Inventories (2/19): Consensus: NA, Prior: 3.08M

Initial Claims (02/20): Consensus: 458K, Prior: 473K

Continuing Claims (02/13): Consensus: 4570K, Prior: 4563K

Durable Orders (Jan): Consensus: 1.5%, Prior: 0.3%

FHFA Housing Price Index (Dec): Consensus: NA, Prior: 0.7%

GDP – Second Estimate (Q4): Consensus: 5.7%, Prior: 5.7%

GDP Deflator – Second Estimate (Q4): Consensus: 0.6%, Prior: 0.6%

Chicago PMI (Feb): Consensus: 59.0, Prior: 61.5

U Michigan Consumer Sentiment – Final (Feb): Consensus: 74.0, Prior: 73.7

Existing Home Sales (Jan): Consensus: 5.50M, Prior: 5.45M