Automakers Death Fight, Stocks Up, Hewlett-Packard Surges

• November 18, 2008
• David Goodboy

Stocks closed up today on the heals of a strong 4th quarter from Hewlett-Packard while being offset by an auto industry locked in a life and death struggle for aid from the U.S Government. The DJIA added +151.17 to 8424.75, the Nasdaq rose +1.22 to 1483.27 and the S&P 500 jumped +8.37 to 859.12.

Chiquita Brands
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CIT Group
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Hewlett-Packard
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Research In Motion
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PowerRating) – Advanced 11.91% or $5.03 to $47.27/share after Scotia Capital stated that sentiment is “unrealistically dour”.

Gold fell $9.30 to $732.70 and oil slipped 0.56 cents to $54.65.

Market Snapshot

Dow +151.17 8424.75 NASDAQ +1.22 1483.27 S&P 500 +8.37 859.12

Economic News

NY Empire State Index (Nov): Consensus -26.0, Prior -24.6 Capacity Utilization (Oct): Consensus 76.5%, Prior 76.4% Industrial Production (Oct): Consensus 0.2%, Prior -2.8% Core PPI (Oct): Consensus 0.1%, Prior 0.4% PPI (Oct): Consensus -1.8%, Prior -0.4% Net Foreign Purchases (Sep): Consensus $17.5B, Prior $14.0B Building Permits (Oct): Consensus 772K, Prior 786K Core CPI (Oct): Consensus 0.1%, Prior 0.1% CPI (Oct): Consensus -0.8%, Prior 0.0% Housing Starts (Oct): Consensus 780K, Prior 817K FOMC Minutes (Oct 29): Consensus N/A, Prior N/A Initial Claims (Nov 15): Consensus 503K, Prior 516K Leading Indicators (Oct): Consensus -0.6%, Prior 0.3% Philadelphia Fed (Nov): Consensus -35.0, Prior -37.5

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