Halloween Stock Horror, High Velocity VIX, Amgen Sued

  • October 30, 2009
  • David Goodboy

The final trading day of the week was a horror for the bulls as the major indexes closed sharply lower. Fears regarding declining consumer spending triggered the aggressive selling. The fear index VIX spiked nearly 25% as investors scrambled for derivative insurance against further losses. Word of a multi-state, class action suit against Amgen for alleged kickbacks further added to the pessimism on Wall Street. The DJIA plummeted -249.85 to 9712.73, the tech heavy Nasdaq gave back -52.44 to 2045.11 and the broad based S&P 500 fell -29.93 to 1036.18.

CIT Group
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PowerRating): Word of Billionaire investor Carl Icahn agreeing to support its boilerplate BK plan sent shares sharply lower by 24.21% or 23 cents to 72 cents.

Citigroup
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PowerRating): Respected banking analyst, Mike Mayo, stated that the company may suffer a $10 billion dollar write down this year causing the stock to drop 5.10% or 22 cents to $4.09/share.

MetLife
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PowerRating): Fell 7.63% or $2.81 to $34.03/share after posting a third quarter loss,

Zale Corp
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PowerRating): The diamond retailer reported a fiscal 4th quarter loss and is being investigated for accounting irregularities, resulting in shares falling 25.98% or $1.66 to $4.73,

Gold gave back $6.70 to $1040.00, oil dropped $2.87 to $76.97 and the fear index VIX spiked 23.95% to 30.69 posting its sharpest gain of the year.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

 -249.85 9712.73

NASDAQ

 -52.44 2045.11

S&P 500

 -29.93 1036.18

Economic
News

CaseShiller Home Price Index (Aug): Consensus: -11.90%, Prior: -13.30%

Consumer Confidence (Oct): Consensus: 53.5, Prior: 53.1

Durable Orders (Sep): Consensus: 1.0%, Prior: -2.4%

Durable Orders ex Transportation (Sep): Consensus: 0.7%, Prior: 0.0%

New Home Sales (Sep): Consensus: 440K, Prior: 429K

Crude Inventories (10/23): Consensus: NA, Prior: 1.31M

Chain Deflator-Adv. (Q3): Consensus: 1.3%, Prior: 0.0%

GDP-Adv (Q3): Consensus: 3.2%, Prior: -0.7%

Initial Claims (10/24): Consensus: 525K, Prior: 531K

Continuing Claims (10/17): Consensus: 5915K, Prior: 5923K

Personal Income (Sep): Consensus: 0.0%, Prior: 0.2%

Personal Spending (Sep): Consensus: -0.5%, Prior: 1.3%

PCE Prices (Sep): Consensus: -0.5%, Prior: -0.5%

Core PCE Prices (Sep): Consensus: 0.2%, Prior: 0.1%

Chicago PMI (Oct): Consensus: 48.7, Prior: 46.1

Mich Sentiment-Rev (Oct): Consensus: 70.0, Prior: 69.4

Employment Cost Index (Q3): Consensus: 0.4%, Prior: 0.4%