Anxious Mixed Market, Insurers Rally, Coke Fizzle

  • February 9, 2009
  • Dave Goodboy

The stock market anxiously awaiting Treasury Secretary’s Geithner’s announcement Tuesday, closed mixed on the day. Insurance companies rallied on news that their sector may benefit from the stimulus plan. Coca-cola fizzled after a $4.9 billion dollar buyout offer for an Australian bottler was yanked. The DJIA dipped -9.72 to 8270.87, the Nasdaq slipped -0.15 to 1591.56 and the S&P 500 added +1.29 to 869.89.

Hartford Financial
(
HIG |
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PowerRating) – Rallied 18.53% or $2.35 to $15.03/share on news that it may be able to reduce its reserve requirements to weather the financial storm.

NYSE Euronext
(
NYX |
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PowerRating) – Dipped 5.20% or $1.19 to $21.71/share after the worlds largest holder of stock exhanges wrote down the value of its European operations.

Whirlpool
(
WHR |
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PowerRating) – Climbed 2.03% or 0.74 cents to $37.13/share despite posting a 76% drop in fourth quarter profits.

Lincoln National
(
LNC |
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PowerRating) – Following the sector gain, the insurer added 7.57% or $1.25 to $17.77/share.

Oil fell 0.61 cents to $39.74, Gold dropped $21.50 to $892.80 and the fear index VIX added 0.62% to 43.64.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -9.72 8270.87

NASDAQ

 -0.15 1591.56

S&P 500

 +1.29 869.89

Economic
News

Wholesale Inventories (Dec): Consensus: -0.7%, Prior: -0.6%

Trade Balance (Dec): Consensus: -$37.0B, Prior: -$40.4B

Crude Inventories (Feb 06): Consensus: NA, Prior: 7.2M

Treasury Budget (Jan): Consensus: -$75.0B, Prior: -$83.6B

Initial Claims (Feb 07): Consensus: 610K, Prior: 626K

Retail Sales (Jan): Consensus: -0.3%, Prior: -2.7%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Jan): Consensus: -0.4%, Prior: -3.1%

Business Inventories (Dec): Consensus: -0.6%, Prior: -0.7%

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Feb): Consensus: 61.5, Prior: 61.2