Huge Pension Fund Makes A Move
Stocks were
lower Tuesday. Concerns about mutual fund
trading abuses and continued security concerns kept some money aside, traders
say. The euro hit new highs against the dollar and oil prices rose above
$33/bbl. It was a trend down day, with yesterday’s lows taken out late in the
day after an early gap higher.
Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported good numbers as its net rose 22% to $1.15 billion on $16.6 billion
of revenue. Stronger earnings were attributed to higher demand for
home-improvement goods. The company also upped fiscal year revenue of 9% to 12%
higher sales, with earnings of $1.79 a share. General Electric
(
GE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) received
an upgrade from Merrill Lynch. The company is expected to continue its double-digit earnings after
four years of flat profits. Economic numbers released today included core inflation
rate that rose 0.2% in October, overall CPI for the first ten
months that rose 2.3%, and energy prices falling 3.9% in October.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average
(
$INDU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 86.67 at 9624.16. The S&P 500
(
$SPX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
slid 9.48 at 1034.15. The Nasdaq
(
$COMPQ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) lost 27.86 at
1881.75.
The day’s leading sectors were Amex
Gold Bugs Index
(
$HUI.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +6.02%, Gold and Silver Sector Index
(
$XAU.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
+4.61%, and Pharmaceutical Index
(
$DRG.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +.06%.
Weak today were Internet
(
GIN.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.59%, Airlines
(
$XAL.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating),
-2.89% and Disk Drives
(
$DDX.X |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), -2.76%.
Economic news releases for
today included Core CPI up 0.2%, CPI was flat at 0%.
Volume was
1,303,656,000
on the NYSE, and1,921,775,000 on the Nasdaq.
Market breadth was negative,
with NYSE issues declining over advancing issues by 1.40 and down over up volume
by 3.93; Nasdaq declining
over advancing issues at 1.60, and down over up volume at 2.62.
Stocks in the news:
Prudential Financial
(
PRU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
announced its purchase of the retirement business of Cigna
(
CI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) for
$2.1 billion in cash.
BJ’s Wholesale Club
(
BJ |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell 6% after reporting lower profit for the past quarter. Earnings fell to
$20.4 billion
on higher sales of $1.6 billion.
CalPERS has shown Putnam Investments
(
MMC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
the way out after the board ruled Putnam had breached its fiduciary duty by
failing to adequately stop employees from making frequent trades in its mutual
funds. The union had $1.2 billion in assets with Putnam.
Staples
(
SPLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) reported higher third-quarter
net income of $166 million above Wall Street consensus. Revenue was also
up 14% to $3.5 billion.
If you have any comments or questions, please
feel free to email me.
bricew@tradingmarkets.com