AIG Bonus Bust, Rally Fizzles, Barclays Declares Strong Start

  • March 16, 2009
  • Dave Goodboy

Today witnessed a roller coaster like ride in the stock market. Upon hitting near term highs midday, the rally fizzled on news of Obama being outraged at AIG executive bonus pay and increased mortgage fraud despite Barclays stating that 2009 was off to a strong start. Timothy Geithner has finally stated that he will reveal the plan to “clean up” toxic assets from banks balance sheets soon increasing speculation of the strategies veracity. The DJIA slipped -7.01 to 7216.97, the Nasdaq gave back -27.488 to 1404.02 and the S&P 500 dipped -2.66 to 753.89.

Weyerhaeuser Paper
(
WY |
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PowerRating) – Climbed 4.49% or $1.07 to $24.89 after Deutsche Bank raised its rating to a buy.

Barclays
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PowerRating) – Surged 19.91% or 0.88 cents to $5.30/share after giving positive words about 2009 and agreeing to sell off the ishares unit in an effort to raise cash avoiding government intervention.

General Motors
(
GM |
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PowerRating) – Led the DJIA lower today falling 7.35% or 0.20 cents to $2.52/share due to speculation about CEO Richard Wagoner’s meeting today with President Obama.

Orient Express Hotels
(
OEH |
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PowerRating) – Announced a restructuring plan that includes selling off company parts. Shares reacted by adding 5.23% or 0.23 cents to $4.63/share.

Oil climbed 1.10 cents to $47.06, Gold fell $8.10 to $922.00 and the fear index VIX advanced 3.26% to 43.74.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -7.01 7216.97

NASDAQ

 -27.48 1404.02

S&P 500

 -2.66 753.89

Economic
News

Empire Manufacturing (Mar): Consensus: -30.80, Prior: -34.65

Net Long-Term TIC Flows (Jan): Consensus: $45.0B, Prior: -$34.7B, Revived From: $34.8B

Capacity Utilization (Feb): Consensus: 71.0%, Prior: 71.9%, Revived From: 72.0%

Industrial Production (Feb): Consensus: -1.3%, Prior: -1.9%, Revived From: -1.8%

Building Permits (Feb): Consensus: 500K, Prior: 531K

Housing Starts (Feb): Consensus: 450K, Prior: 466K

PPI (Feb): Consensus: 0.4%, Prior: 0.8%

Core PPI (Feb): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.4%

Core CPI (Feb): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.2%

CPI (Feb): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.3%

Current Account Balance (Q4): Consensus: -$136.7B, Prior: NA

Crude Inventories (March 13): Consensus: NA, Prior: +749K

FOMC Rate: Consensus: NA, Prior: 0.00%

FOMC Decision: Consensus: NA, Prior: -0.25%

Initial Claims (March 14): Consensus: NA, Prior: 654K

Leading Indicators (Feb): Consensus: -0.6%, Prior: 0.4%

Philadelphia Fed (Mar): Consensus: -40.0, Prior: -41.3