Buffett Shouts Buy, Construction Crushed, Stocks Slip

  • October 17, 2008
  • David Goodboy

Over 70 million options expired today capping off the most volatile week in history. A slight easing of the credit market reflected in the Libor dipping for the 5th straight day combined with Warren Buffett shouting to buy stocks in the New York Times led to a solid midday rally in the indexes. However, a crushing fall in home construction and declining consumer confidence worked to knock the stock market back down to close lower across the board. The DJIA gave back -127.04 to 8852.22, the Nasdaq slipped -6.42 to 1711.29 and the broad based S&P 500 gave back –5.88 to 940.55.

Google
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PowerRating) – Climbed 5.58% or $19.69 to $372.71 after beating analysts estimates and providing positive guidance for the future

Melco Crown Entertainment
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PowerRating) – The Joint venture between billionaire Stanley Ho’s son and Australian James Packer surged 16.43% or 0.46 cents to $3.26/share on announcing its “City of Dreams” casino will open on schedule and is financed

Nasdaq OMX
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Zions Bankcorporation
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PowerRating) – Was hit hard dropping 9.68% or $3.89 to $36.31/share after announcing an astounding 72% decline in profits and being downgraded by JP Morgan

Gold fell another $14.60 to $789.90, oil climbed $2.25 to $72.10 and the VIX index added 4.02% to 70.33 after hitting an all time intraday high this week of 81.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -127.04 8852.22

NASDAQ

 -6.42 1717.71

S&P 500

 -5.88 940.55

Economic
News

Treasury Budget (Sep): Consensus NA, Prior NA

Core PPI (Sep): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.2%

NY Empire State Index (Oct): Consensus -10.0%, Prior -7.4%

PPI (Sep): Consensus -0.3%, Prior -0.9%

Retail Sales (Sep): Consensus -0.4%, Prior -0.3%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Sep): Consensus 0.1%, Prior -0.7%

Business Inventories (Aug): Consensus 0.4%, Prior 1.1%

Crude Inventories (Oct 11): Consensus NA, Prior NA

Core CPI (Sep): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.2%

CPI (Sep): Consensus 0.1%, Prior -0.1%

Initial Claims (Oct 11): Consensus NA, Prior 478K

Net Foreign Purchases (Aug): Consensus NA, Prior NA

Capacity Utilization(Sep): Consensus 78.0%, Prior 78.7%

Industrial Production (Sep): Consensus -0.8%, Prior -1.1%

Philadelphia Fed (Oct): Consensus -5.0, Prior 3.8

Building Permits (Oct): Consensus 845K, Prior 854K

Housing Starts (Sep): Consensus 880K, Prior 895K

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Oct): Consensus 69.0, Prior 70.3

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