Takeover Deluxe, Bernanke’s Nervousness, Banks Higher

An overall quiet day on Wall Street despite several takeover bids hitting the wire. The erratic session was made negative by worries concerning Ben Bernanke’s statement due later in the week. Banks gained on analysts beliefs that the Fed will leave rates at record lows despite the slight recent increase. Late day selling pressure pushed the major indexes into the red with the DJIA giving back -18.97 to 10383.38, the Nasdaq fell -1.84 to 2242.03 and the S&P 500 dropped -1.16 to 1108.01.

^MIL^: Soared 22.44% or $16.01 to $87.35/share when they received an unsolicited takeover bid from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

^AIG^: Climbed 7.16% or $1.90 to $28.43/share after an analyst stated she believes underwriting is improving.

^HRB^: Fell 4.55% or 96 cents to $20.16/share after being downgraded by Oppenheimer & Co.

^HUM^: Advanced 5.56% or $2.52 to $47.87/share upon news that Medicare may raise payments to insurers next year.

Oil advanced 24 cents to $80.05, gold fell $9.00 to 1113.00 and the VIX index gave back 0.40% to 19.94.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

-18.97 10,383.38

NASDAQ

-1.84 2,242.03

S&P 500

-1.16 1,108.01
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