Bears Rampage, Jobless Rate Shocks, Refco Chief Jailed

Stock market bears went on a rampage today due to a rising jobless rate and
falling oil damaging the energy sector. In addition, Refco’s chief Phil
Bennett started his 16 year prison sentence for fraud today, topping off an
already dismal day in the markets. The DJIA collapsed -347.25
to 11185.63, the Nasdaq gave back -74.69 to 2259.04
and the broad based S&P 500 plummeted -38.17
to 1236.81 earning the worst decline since January, 2008.

Terex Corp
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– The construction equipment maker posted
its steepest lost since 2002, falling 19.65% or $9.30 to $38.02/share after
stating that profits will be less than expected this year.

Walmart
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was a bright spot today adding .10% or $0.07to
$59.87 due to an August sales increase

Abercrombie & Fitch
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gave back 6.80% or $3.72
to $50.99/share after posting an 11% decline in August sales.

Hovnanian Enterprises
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– The home builder had the
largest drop since 1998 falling 17.42% or $1.35 to $6.40 on its 8th consecutive
quarterly loss.

Oil dropped $1.52 to 107.83/barrel, gold gave back $6.60 to $801.60/oz and
the VIX fear index exploded up 17.31% to 24.48 as fear of additional declines
grip the market.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-347.25 11185.63

NASDAQ

-74.69 2259.04

S&P 500

-38.17 1236.81

Economic
News

Chain Deflator-Prel (Q2): Consensus 1.1%, Prior 1.1%

GDP-Prel (Q2): Consensus 2.7%, Prior 1.9%

Initial Claims (08/23): Consensus 425K, Prior 432K

Personal Income (Jul): Consensus -0.2%, Prior 0.1%

Personal Spending (Jul): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.6%

Chicago PMI (Aug): Consensus 50.0, Prior 50.8

Mich Sentiment-Rev (Aug): Consensus 62.0, Prior 61.7

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