Auto Sales Slammed, Stocks Vacillate, Bernanke Nervous

  • March 3, 2009
  • Dave Goodboy

Stocks fought back hard from the sharp selling on Monday only to have the last effort knocked back down from the break even point. Indexes vacillated from positive to negative as they digested the day’s news flow. Dire news of huge sales drops in the auto sector combined with Bernanke appearing nervous as he defended the multiple bailout attempts of AIG before policy makers. The DJIA slipped -37.27 to 6726.02, the Nasdaq dipped -1.84 to 1321.01 and the broad based S&P 500 gave back -4.49 to 696.33.

AutoZone
(
AZO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Smashed analysts earning estimates climbing 7.96% or $11.15 to $151.18/share.

General Motors
(
GM |
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Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Held up surprising well after revealing a massive sales decline. Shares slipped 0.50% or 0.01cents to $2.00/share.

General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Led the DJIA lower after UBS stated the stock has substantial downside risk. Shares gave back 7.76% or 0.59 cents to $7.01/share.

DR Horton
(
DHI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Gave back 9.07% or 0.73 cents to $7.32 after the homebuilder was cut by Credit Suisse.

Oil climbed $1.50 to $41.45, Gold fell another $26.40 to $913.60 and the fear index VIX fell 3.27% to 50.93 today.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -37.27 6726.02

NASDAQ

 -1.84 1321.01

S&P 500

 -4.49 696.33

Economic
News

Personal Income (Jan): Consensus: -0.2%, Prior: -0.2%

Personal Spending (Jan): Consensus: 0.4%, Prior: -1.0%

Core PCE (Jan): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.0%

Construction Spending (Jan): Consensus: -1.5%, Prior: -1.4%

ISM Index (Feb): Consensus: 33.8, Prior: 35.6

Pending Home Sales (Jan): Consensus: -3.0%, Prior: -6.3%

Auto Sales (Feb): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Truck Sales (Feb): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

ADP Employment Change (Feb): Consensus: -613K, Prior: -522K

ISM Services (Feb): Consensus: 41.3, Prior: 42.9

Crude Inventories (Feb 27): Consensus: NA, Prior: 717K

Fed Beige Book: Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Productivity-Rev. (Q4): Consensus: 1.6%, Prior: 3.2%

Unit Labor Costs (Q4): Consensus: 3.4%, Prior: 1.8%

Initial Claims (Feb 28): Consensus: NA, Prior: 667K

Factory Orders (Jan): Consensus: -2.1%, Prior: -3.9%

Average Workweek (Feb): Consensus: 33.3, Prior: 33.3

Hourly Earnings (Feb): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.3%

Nonfarm Payrolls (Feb): Consensus: -615K, Prior: -598K

Unemployment Rate (Feb): Consensus: 7.9%, Prior: 7.6%

Consumer Credit (Jan): Consensus: -$4.0B, Prior: -$6.6B