Banking Stocks Drag Markets Lower

  • February 8, 2007
  • Darren Wong

The U.S. stock markets made
a comeback off the lows of the day, but still closed slightly in
the red.  The Dow led to the downside today giving up 0.25%.  

Notable decliners in the Dow
include McDonald’s
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) and Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
with losses of 1.2% and 1% respectively.

Benefiting from some
late-day strength, the price of oil moved sharply higher over the
course of the trading session on Thursday. Crude for March
delivery closed up $2 at $59.71 a barrel after ending the previous
session down more than $1 a barrel.

The
price of gold moved back to the upside during trading on Thursday.
Gold for April delivery closed up $5.50 at $662.80 an ounce after
ending the previous session down $1.40 an ounce.




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Stocks in
Motion

Disney
(
DIS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 Profit Jumps, Tops
Estimate (full
story).  DIS shares lose 0.5% in today’s session.

Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Jan. Comps. Rises 2.2%,
Sees Feb. Comps. Growth Of 1-2% (full
story).  WMT shares drop 0.6%.

Marriott International
(
MAR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Declines; Adj. EPS Increases;
Guides Q1, FY07 (full
story).  MAR shares gain 2.2%.

Weak Housing Climate Takes Toll On Toll Brothers‘
(
TOL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q1 (full
story).  TOL shares lose 3%.

Express Scripts
(
ESRX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 Profit Rises; EPS Beats View; Lifts Q1,
FY07 Earnings Outlook; Reveals Nod For Share Repurchase (full
story).  ESRX shares rise 0.5%.

Akamai Technologies
(
AKAM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Q4 GAAP
Profit Drops On Expenses, Charges; Normalized EPS Beats View (full
story).  AKAM shares gain 3.7%.

Costco Wholesale
(
COST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) Jan. Comps. Up
2%; Net Sales Rise 7% (full
story).  COST shares close lower by 0.9%.

For more stories as they happen, go to our
Breaking News section.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -29.24 12,637.63

NASDAQ

 -1.83 2,488.67

S&P 500

 -1.71 1,448.31

 

 NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

 2,668,033,000 1,969,858,000

Advances

 1477 1444

Declines

 1759 1571

Up Volume

 1154 855

Down Volume

 1279 893

New Highs

 295 171

New Lows

 22 41



Strongest/Weakest Sectors

Strongest Sectors

Weakest Sectors
Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI) Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors Index (HMO)
Amex Networking Index (NWX) S&P Banking Index (BIX)
CBOE Oil Index (OIX) Dow Jones Equity REIT Index (GHA)


Economic
News

Wholesale
Inventories -0.5% vs 0.7% consensus


Initial Claims 311K vs 310K consensus

Darren Wong

Associate Editor

darrenw@tradingmarkets.com