Indexes Climb, Health Care Sick, Oil Drops Hard

US stock indexes climbed across the board on oils retreat and technology stocks advance. The DJIA added +34.03 to 12063.09, the Nasdaq climbed +32.36 to 2462.07 and the S&P 500 advanced +5.02 to 1342.83.

WellPoint Inc.
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retreated 4.93% or $2.56 to $49.40/share after Coventry Healthcare lowered it’s forecast for the second time in 2008.

Coventry Healthcare
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collapsed 21.68% or $8.67 to $31.33 after slashing its earnings forecast for the second time.

American International Group
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advanced 4.85% or $1.53 to $33.05/share when the world’s largest insurer was upgraded to a “buy” by a Citigroup analyst.

Carnival Corp.
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cruised up 5.35% or $1.87 to 36.84 on beating second quarter profit estimates by 18%.

Oil dropped hard to $131.69, giving up $4.99/barrel when China announced an increase in prices. Gold climbed $10.70 to $904.70/oz and the S&P Energy Index fell 13.69 to 636.67.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+34.03 12063.09

NASDAQ

+32.36 2462.07

S&P 500

+5.02 1342.83

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

Initial Claims (06/14): Consensus 375K, Prior 384K

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

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