Big Day On Wall Street
Stocks fell Monday for a third straight session on concerns over high oil prices
and worries of an interest rate hike
by the Fed. From a technical standpoint,
the market hit several milestones today. The Dow, Nasdaq
and the Russell 2000 broke through their crucial 200-day MA levels–the lowest
since mid-December. The Dow closed below 10,000 for the first time since
12/10/03; the Nasdaq closed below 2000 for
the first time since 11/21/03. The
Dow and S&P fell below their trading ranges for the year with NYSE declining
volume exceeding advancing volume by 10:1 on
the heaviest volume of the year; the indices also
closed at their 2004 lows. The Semis
held on, with the $SOX closing up for the day.
The Nikkei fell 5%, or 554 points, the largest drop since 9/11.
Citigroup
(
C |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
will pay $2.65 billion to settle a class-action suit from WorldCom stock and bond
holders for its alleged participation in the WorldCom scandal. The company admits no guilt. Citigroup will take a charge of $4.95
billion in the second quarter to increase reserves.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi
called for OPEC to increase output by 1.5 million barrels a day to tame rising
oil prices that peaked to $40 for the first time in 13 years on Friday. Oil fell
$0.95 today.
Martha Stewart’s lawyers will argue that she should not go to prison
because workers will be laid off if she did, and plan to cite a 1995 appeals
court decision which kept a CEO from behind bars.
| Dow | -127.32 |
9990.02 |
| S&P 500 |
-11.58 |
1087.12 |
| Nasdaq | -21.89 |
1896.07 |
Strong today were Gold and
Silver
(
XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.44%, Amex Gold Bugs
(
HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +2.63%, and
Retail
(
RTH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +0.94%.
Weak today were Energy
(
DXE.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.17%, Oil Index
(
XOI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.07%, and Natural Gas
(
XNG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) -3.08%.
The dollar
was +0.44 at 91.57
Gold was +2.62 at 378.21
Crude Oil was -0.95 at
38.98
Volume was 1.9 billion
on the NYSE, and 1.87 billion on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative.
| NYSE | Issues | |
| Advancing |
363 | Up Vol 234 |
| Declining | 3089 | Down Vol 1520 |
| Ratio | 8.5 |
6.49 |
| Nasdaq |
||
| Advancing |
702 | Up Vol 380 |
| Declining |
2529 | Down Vol 1377 |
| Ratio | 3.6 |
3.62 |
Stocks in the news:
Prudential downgraded JP Morgan Chase
(
JPM |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) on
Citigroup’s announcement of its $2.65 billion settlement. Prudential believes
JPM needs a larger reserve for its WorldCom and Enron involvement.
SunTrust Banks
(
STI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) will acquire
National Commerce Financial
(
NCF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) in a $7 billion stock and cash deal.
SunTrust expects to achieve annual cost savings of $117 million.
McDonalds
(
MCD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported global same-store sales
that rose 10.5% for the month of April with US same-store sales up 13.5%.
Cablevision Systems
(
CVC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported a net-loss of
$120 million with revenue up 9% to $1.19 billion.
Brice Wightman
bricew@tradingmarkets.com