Indices Smacked, Oil Rises

Stocks fell sharply, with the Dow and S&P recording
their worst sessions since August 2004.
Higher oil prices were to
blame, as well as disappointing report from Home Depot..
Consumer Confidence dropped in February, coming in at 104, from 105.1
in January. Oil is over $50 again–and was over $51 for part of the session–
and at a 3-month high. The dollar continued to fall.

The dollar was lower on the news that South Korea is diversifying and
concerns that other central banks will diversify out of the greenback. Major US
debt holders include: Japan, $711.8 billion; China, $193.8 billion, and the UK,
$163.7 billion.

Home Depot
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matched estimates; sales rose 11.2%.

Federated
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beat by a penny.

Winn-Dixie
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filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Novartis
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will become the world’s largest generic drug
company–surpassing Teva Pharmaceuticals–after acquiring Germany’s Hexal
and almost 70% of Eon Labs.

After the close, Novell
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beat by a penny; revenues rose
8.6%.

Strong sectors were: Gold
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+3.78%   Oil  
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+0.02%  

Weak sectors were:  HMOs
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-2.95%   Airlines
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-2.68%  Utilities
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-2.56%.

Dow -173.80 10,611.42
Nasdaq -27.82 2030.80
S&P 500 -17.41 1184.14

The dollar was -1.14 at
82.43

Crude Oil was +2.19 at
51.20

Gold was +6.20 to 434.20

ce=”Arial” size=”2″ face=”Arial”>Volume was 1.7 billion on the NYSE and 2 billion on the Nasdaq.

Market breadth was negative.

NYSE Issues
Advancing 740 Up Vol 248
Declining 2638 Down Vol 1264
3.56 5.09
Nasdaq
Advancing 889 Up Vol 485
Declining 2283 Down Vol 1321
2.56 2.72

Stocks in the News

Sina
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is higher after Shanda Interactive, China’s top game
operator, acquired a 19.5% stake in the company.

Sohu
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is up in sympathy.

Idex Corp.
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was the subject of a positive article in
Barron’s
.

Helen of Troy
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lowered its Q1 outlook.

Brice Wightman