Stocks Sink Again on Wall Street

The major indexes were red across the board on Wednesday, closing near session lows due to a decline in the last hour of trading. The S&P relinquished all of
its gains for the year, with credit losses and underlying negative sentiment remaining the dominant theme.
Mortgage financers Freddie Mac and Countrywide have been at the center of a
growing storm of losses, and there seems to be no end in sight to the bad news.

Retailers were in the spotlight today, with a number of major companies
reporting, or scheduled to report later in the day. Abercrombie & Fitch
(
ANF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

beat expecations and was up on the day (full
story
). Gap
(
GPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell as much 6% on negative speculation, and
bounced on positive results (full
story
).

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index fell to 76.1 in November,
down from 80.9 in October.

Crude oil rose to fresh record highs today, above $99 a barrel, before settling at $97.20. The dollar
hit new record lows versus the euro, and also hit 2-year lows on the yen.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-211.10 12799.04

NASDAQ

-34.66 2562.15

S&P 500

-22.93 1416.77

NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

1,610,610,800 2,068,560,286

Up Volume

260,129,260 477,091,625

Down Volume

1,345,526,120 1,571,957,113

Advances

887 861

Declines

2386 2088

New Highs

24 5

New Lows

542 329

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change

REIT – Healthcare Facilities
+1.81%
Medical Equipment Wholesale

-9.77%

Farm & Construction Machinery
+1.53%
Residential Construction
-5.95%

Recreational Vehicles
+1.47%
Music & Video Stores
-4.63%


Economic
News

Leading Indicators (Oct): Actual
-0.5%, Consensus -0.3%

Consumer Sentiment (Nov): Actual 76.1, Consensus 74.5