GM Posts Giant Loss, Jobs Fall, Markets Decline

  • August 1, 2008
  • David Goodboy

An ugly end to a week that started on an upbeat note. The Jobless rate hit a 4 year high and more gloom fell upon the auto industry. The DJIA gave back -51.70 ending at 11326.32, the Nasdaq fell -14.59 to 2310.96 and the broad based S&P 500 dipped -7.08 to 1260.30.

General Motors
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PowerRating) – Their giant 2nd quarter loss is the lead financial story today. GM posted it’s third largest quarterly loss in history, losing over $15 billion dollars causing the stock to fall 7.95% or .88 cents to $10.19/share.

Boyd Gaming
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PowerRating) climbed 20.74% or $2.07 to $12.06/share after announcing the delay of a Las Vegas project and the institution of a 100 million dollar stock buyback program.

Expedia
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PowerRating) fell 1.84% or $0.36 to $19.21/share despite posting 2nd quarter revenue increases. However, Net Income was flat for the quarter.

Research In Motion
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PowerRating) – This once darling stock of day traders fell 2.10% or $2.58 to $120.24/share on a Credit Suisse analyst’s negative outlook.

Oil added $1.04 to $125.12/barrel, gold slipped $5.20 to $917.50/oz and the VIX fell 1.61% to 22.57.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -51.70 11326.32

NASDAQ

 -14.59 2310.96

S&P 500

 -7.08 1260.30

Economic
News

Consumer Confidence (Jul): Consensus 50.0, Prior 50.4

ADP Employment (Jul): Consensus -60K, Prior -79K

Crude Inventories (07/26): Consensus NA, Prior -1558K

Chain Deflater (Q2): Consensus 2.3%, Prior 2.7%

Employment Cost Index (Q2): Consensus 0.7%, Prior 0.7%

GDP-Adv. (Q2): Consensus 2.3%, Prior 1.0%

Initial Claims (07/26): Consensus 395K, Prior 406K

Chicago PM (Q2): Consensus 49.0, Prior 49.6

Auto Sales (Jul): Consensus NA, Prior 4.9M

Truck Sales (Jul): Consensus NA, Prior 5.0M

Average Workweek (Jul): Consensus 33.7, Prior 33.7

Hourly Earnings (Jul): Consensus 0.3%, Prior 0.3%

Nonfarm Payrolls (Jul): Consensus -75K, Prior -62K

Unemployment Rate (Jul): Consensus 5.6%, Prior 5.5%

Construction Spending (Jun): Consensus -0.3%, Prior -0.4%

ISM Index (Jul): Consensus 49.2, Prior 50.2

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