Consumer Confidence Plummets, CAKE Rises, Yahoo Advances

U.S. stock indexes closed down today after climbing earlier. The DJIA gave back -34.36 to 11808, the Nasdaq declined -17.45 to 2368.28 and the S&P 500 fell -3.71 to 1314.29. The Consumer Confidence figure fell to the lowest in 16 years and falling housing prices added fuel to the decline.

The Cheesecake Factory
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climbed 6.40% or $1.05 to $17.46/share after an analyst upgrade from a “hold” to a “buy”.

Yahoo!
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– A technology blog stated that buyout talks with Microsoft have resumed triggering a 2.52% or $0.55 increase in its shares. Yahoo closed at $22.00 on the news.

United Parcel Service
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dropped 6.02% or $3.99 to $62.27/share after lowering its 2nd quarter forecast due to rising fuel costs and general economic malaise.

Eastman Kodak Co.
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climbed the most in 21 years after the leading photography company approved a billion dollar stock buyback program. The stock added 13.61% or $1.68 to $14.02/share on the announcement.

Housing prices dropped 15.3% in April per the Case-Shiller Index, Oil added $0.30 to $137.04/barrel and the VIX slipped .97% to 22.42.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-34.36 11808

NASDAQ

-17.45 2368.28

S&P 500

-3.71 1314.29

Economic
News

NY Empire State Index (Jun): Actual -8.7%, Consensus -2.0%

Net Foreign Purchases (Apr): Consensus 63.2B, Prior 79.6B

PPI (May): Consensus 1.0%, Prior 0.2%

Core PPI (May): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.4%

Housing Starts (May): Consensus 980K, Prior 1032K

Building Permits (May): Consensus 960K, Prior 978K

Capacity Utilization (May): Consensus 79.7%, Prior 79.7%

Industrial Production (May): Consensus 0.1%, Prior -0.7%

Crude Inventories (06/14): Consensus NA, Prior -4560K

Leading Indicators (May): Consensus 0.0%, Prior 0.1%

Philadelphia Fed (June): Consensus -10.0, Prior -15.6