Bernanke Signals, Stocks Mixed, Yahoo’s New Chief

  • January 13, 2009
  • David Goodboy

Stocks closed mixed today on the heels of Ben Bernanke’s speech stating that stronger economic measures will be needed to stop further decline. Obama’s plan got the thumbs up but Ben clearly signaled the pressing necessity of additional forceful, hard line actions. Yahoo named Carol Bartz as its new CEO in an effort to provide the company with fresh and aggressive guidance into the future. The DJIA closed down -25.41 to 8448.56, the Nasdaq climbed +7.67 to 1546.46, and the broad based market barometer S&P 500 added +1.53 to 871.79.

Prestige Brands
(
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PowerRating) – Collapsed 17.06% or $1.43 to $6.95/share after the maker of Prell shampoo and Clear Eye Drops was downgraded to underweight by JP Morgan.

Lexmark International
(
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PowerRating) – The leading loser in the S&P 500 today, falling 13.12% or $3.72 to $24.63/share as it missed revenue forecasts in the 4th quarter.

Bank of America
(
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PowerRating) – This bank was the largest loser in the DJIA today falling 6.82% or 0.78 cents to $10.65/share after it agreed to sell $10 billion dollars of stocks and warrants to the US Government.

Alcoa
(
AA |
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PowerRating) – Posted its first quarterly loss in 6 years forcing the aluminum maker down 5.07% or 0.51 cents to $9.55/share.

Gold eased ahead by 0.30 cents to $820.70, oil climbed $0.19 to $38.51 and the fear index VIX fell 5.61% to 43.27.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -25.41 8448.56

NASDAQ

 +7.67 1546.46

S&P 500

 +1.53 871.79

Economic
News

Treasury Budget (Dec): Consensus: -$33.0B, Prior: -$48.3B

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

Import Prices ex-oil (Dec): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Retail Sales (Dec): Consensus: -1.1%, Prior: -1.8%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Dec): Consensus: -1.2%, Prior: -1.6%

Business Inventories (Nov): Consensus: -0.5%, Prior: -0.6%

Crude Inventories (Jan 09): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Core PPI (Dec): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.1%

Initial Claims (Jan 10): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

PPI (Dec): Consensus: -1.9%, Prior: -2.2%

Philadelphia Fed (Jan): Consensus: -35.0, Prior: -32.9

Core CPI (Dec): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.0%

CPI (Dec): Consensus: -1.0%, Prior: -1.7%

Capacity Utilization (Dec): Consensus: 74.7%, Prior: 75.4%

Industrial Production (Dec): Consensus: -0.8%, Prior: -0.6%

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Jan): Consensus: 60.0, Prior: 60.1

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