Holiday Trading Lacking in Cheer

The major indexes were red across the board, as the S&P relinquished all of
its gains for the year to credit losses and underlying negative sentiment.
Mortgage financers Freddie Mac and Countrywide have been at the center of a
growing storm of losses, and there seems to be no end in sight to the bad news.

Retailers were in the spotlight today, with a number of major companies
reporting, or scheduled to report later in the day. Abercrombie & Fitch
(
ANF |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

beat expecations and was up on the day (full
story
). Gap
(
GPS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
fell as much 6% on negative speculation, and
bounced on positive results (full
story
).

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment index fell to 76.1 in November,
down from 80.9 in October.

Crude oil rose to fresh record highs today, above $99 a barrel. The dollar
hit new record lows versus the euro, and also hit 2-year lows on the yen.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-126.07 12884.07

NASDAQ

-32.69 2564.12

S&P 500

-15.69 1424.01

NYSE NASDAQ

Volume

592,416,760 821,695,009

Up Volume

92,493,960 136,342,136

Down Volume

497,631,000 677,287,465

Advances

760 745

Declines

2418 2023

New Highs

20 2

New Lows

464 257

Strongest/Weakest Industry Groups

Strongest Industries

% Change

Weakest Industries

% Change

Footwear
+0.84%

Residential Construction

-4.57%

Soft Drinks
+0.67%

Surety and Title Insurance
-4.16%

Electronic Equipment
+0.60%

Mortgage Investment
-3.42%


Economic
News

Leading Indicators (Oct): Actual
-0.5%, Consensus -0.3%

Consumer Sentiment (Nov): Actual 76.1, Consensus 74.5