When No News Is Good News
A paucity of earnings and economic news are leaving the
major averages in a holding pattern.
Stocks sold off last week after an onslaught of
negative corporate earnings news turned traders pessimistic in the heaviest week
of this quarter’s earnings season. A quieter news day is working to keep stocks
near break even levels in mixed trading.
The Dow is down 18 at 10,398, the Nasdaq Composite is
down 2.19 at 2031.13, and the S&P 500 is down .34 at 1205.48.
The well below-par performance-confessions were
capped by the anticipated, but worse than expected, loss from JDS Uniphase
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late in the week, which stated it set a quarterly loss after writing down
companies it had acquired during the past two years. The loss placed it in a
club with other communications giants that reported quarterly losses in
excess of $1 billion. JDS Uniphase’s loss exceeded $44 billion, probably the
worse in corporate history as it joined Corning, Lucent, and Nortel in The
Billionaire Boys Club.
The weakest pace of economic growth since 1993 was
also reported by the Commerce Department on Friday. Gross domestic product
came in at .7%, confirming the severity of the economic slowdown.
Although there is little on the news or earnings
front to push markets today, Adobe
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earnings. ADBE sold off as many as 5 points but found support and reversed
off its recent, July 16, 20-day low in a Turtle Soup Buy setup. Adobe is now
down 2.16 at 40.95.
One of America’s and the Dow’s biggest stocks,
General Electric
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spend $5 billion to acquire Heller Financial. GE is off 2% at 43.73 and is
the biggest loser on a percentage basis on the Dow.