Buffett Bets Big, Transportations Take Off, Gold Hits High

  • November 3, 2009
  • David Goodboy

In what he is calling an “all-in-wager” on the future of America, billionaire investor Warren Buffett placed the biggest bet of his career by agreeing to purchase Railroad Company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp for $26 billion. This triggered a rally in the transportation sector but was insufficient impetus to drag the broader market sharply higher. Word of the IMF selling 200 tons of gold to India’s Central Bank sent the precious metal to its all time high. The DJIA closed down -17.53 to 9771.91, the tech heavy Nasdaq added +8.12 to 2057.32 and the broad based S&P 500 climbed +2.53 to 1045.41.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe
(
BNI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating): Surged 2.04% or $21.33 to $97.41/share on word of Buffettt’s buyout offer.

Intel
(
INTC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating): A downgrade to “cautious” at Morgan Stanley, sent shares lower by 2.68% or 51 cents to $18.50.

Energizer Holdings
(
ENR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating): Fell 10.29% or $6.20 to $54.05/share after missing profit estimates.

Texas Roadhouse
(
TXRH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating): Soared 16.72% or $1.57 to $10.97/share after beating analyst’s estimates.

Gold hit an all time high today closing up $31.20 to $1084.90, oil added $1.47 to $79.41 and the VIX index fell 3.26% to 28.81.

Nearly 80% winning trades since 2003! Introducing ETF PowerRatings, a simple and powerful rating service, that ranks ETFs from 1 to 10. Get your 7 day free trial – Click Here.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -17.53 9771.91

NASDAQ

 +8.12 2057.32

S&P 500

 +2.53 1045.41

Economic
News

Construction Spending (Sep): Consensus: -0.2%, Prior: 0.8%

ISM Index (Oct): Consensus: 53.0, Prior: 52.6

Pending Home Sales (Sep): Consensus: -0.1%, Prior: 6.4%

Factory Orders (Sep): Consensus: 0.9%, Prior: -0.8%

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

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

Challenger Job Cuts (Oct): Consensus: NA, Prior: -30.2%

ADP Employment Report (Oct): Consensus: -190K, Prior: -254K

ISM Service (Oct): Consensus: 51.5, Prior: 50.9

Crude Inventories (10/30): Consensus: NA, Prior: 0.78M

FOMC Rate Decision (11/14): Consensus: 0.25%, Prior: 0.25%

Productivity-Prel (Q3): Consensus: 6.5%, Prior: 6.6%

Initial Claims (10/31): Consensus: 520K, Prior: 530K

Continuing Claims (10/24): Consensus: 5750K, Prior: 5797K

Nonfarm Payrolls (Oct): Consensus: -1175K, Prior: -263K

Unemployment Rate (Oct): Consensus: 9.9%, Prior: 9.8%

Average Workweek (Oct): Consensus: 33.1, Prior: 33.0

Hourly Earnings (Oct): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.1%

Wholesale Inventories (Sep): Consensus: -1.0%, Prior: -1.3%

Consumer Credit (Sep): Consensus: -$10.3B, Prior: -$12.0B