AIG Fails to Set the Tone

The U.S. stock market indexes rallied from losses to start the week, despite
negative news from AIG. Stocks were up moderately today on light economic news,
and a somewhat listless market atmosphere.

American International Group
(
AIG |
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fell more than 10% after
auditing reports found “material weakness” in the company’s credit-default swaps
(full
story
).

Yahoo!
(
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rejected Microsoft’s
(
MSFT |
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takeover
bid; YHOO rallied 2%, while MSFT fell about 1.5% (full
story
).

Motorola
(
MOT |
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PowerRating)
rallied 3% on rumors of a proposed merger with
Nortel Networks

(
NT |
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, while was down 1.4% (full
story
).

Altria
(
MO |
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News |
PowerRating)
and Honeywell
(
HON |
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News |
PowerRating)
will be replaced by
Bank of America

(
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and Chevron
(
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as components of the
Dow Industrials on 2/19 (full
story
).

Gold rallied 0.5% today, as traders bought the precious metal as a safety
from inflationary pressures. Crude oil futures rallied over 3%, helping to boost
gold’s appeal as well.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

57.88 12240.01

NASDAQ

15.21 2320.06

S&P 500

7.80 1339.09

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change

Automobiles
+4.08%
Life
Insurance

-4.01%

Nonmetallic Mineral Mining

+3.66%
Mortgage
Investing

-2.39%
General
Contractors

+3.31%

Insurance Brokers

-1.77%

Economic
News

No major economic news to report
for the U.S. today.