Income Falls, Stocks Sink, GM Makes Hasty Retreat

July income figures smacked down to the lowest point in 3 years combined with slowing consumer spending and rising oil prices sunk the stock market today. The DJIA fell -170.74 to 11544.44, the Nasdaq gave back -44.12 to 2367.52 and the broad based S&P 500 dropped -17.93 to 1282.75.

General Motors
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– The Beleaguered US auto giant fell 3% or 31 cents to $10.31/share on news of offering early retirement packages to 9000 workers, about 28% of the workforce in an extremely aggressive cost cutting attempt.

Fannie Mae
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fell for the first time this week, giving up 14.21% or $1.13 to $6.82/share due to the Bank of China cutting its stake in the fallen US mortgage company.

FujiFilm
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cut its annual outlook leading investment banks to lower projections. The stock fell 9.19% or $2.78 to $27.46/share on the news.

Popular Inc
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climbed 12.72% or .92 cents to $8.15 after the owner of Puerto Rico’s largest bank agreed to spin off its sub prime home loan division to Goldman Sachs.

Oil climbed 1 cent to $115.60/barrel, Gold fell $1.80 to $835.40/oz and the VIX soared 6.28% to 20.65 indicating fear is seeping back into the market.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-170.74 11544.44

NASDAQ

-44.12 2367.52

S&P 500

-17.93 1282.75

Economic
News

Chain Deflator-Prel (Q2): Consensus 1.1%, Prior 1.1%

GDP-Prel (Q2): Consensus 2.7%, Prior 1.9%

Initial Claims (08/23): Consensus 425K, Prior 432K

Personal Income (Jul): Consensus -0.2%, Prior 0.1%

Personal Spending (Jul): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.6%

Chicago PMI (Aug): Consensus 50.0, Prior 50.8

Mich Sentiment-Rev (Aug): Consensus 62.0, Prior 61.7

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