Inflation Concerns And Earnings Sink Stocks

Stocks closed near the lows of the
day after
Wal-Mart, Deere and Gateway cut annual forecasts.
Home Depot and JC
Penney also weighed on the retail sector despite announcing earnings that beat
estimates. The market experienced a broad based selloff with only 2 sectors
closing in positive territory.

A raft of economic data added to the downward pressure on
stocks. July CPI and Industrial Production came in higher than
forecast. Housing Starts also came in below expectations but Building Permits
hit a 32-year high (see the

Futures Market Recap
for more info on which sectors are benefiting).


Click here
for today’s economic news

The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart
(
WMT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.11%
cut full-year EPS to $2.60 – $2.70 from $2.74. Deere
(
DE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-11.23%
reported Q3 EPS of $1.58 vs. the $1.90 expectation and cut full-year earnings to
$1.4 Bln from $1.6 Bln. Deere is the world’s largest maker of farm equipment and
is impacting Caterpillar
(
CAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.84%, the world’s largest maker of
earth-moving equipment. Gateway
(
GTW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-20.05% also cut full-year EPS
to $0.13 – $0.15 from $0.17.

Home Depot
(
HD |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-2.25% and JC Penney
(
JCP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-4.16% are both
trading lower despite beating analyst estimates. Delta Airlines
(
DAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+13.66% agreed to sell Atlantic Southeast Airlines to SkyWest for $425 Mln but
is to be ejected from the S&P 500 after the close on Thursday due to its
declining market cap.

Biggest Risers And Fallers

S&P 500

Delta Ailrlines
(
DAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+13.66%, Delphi Corp
(
DPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+4.52%
and King Pharmaceuticals
(
KG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+2.85%.

Gateway
(
GTW |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-20.05%, Deere
(
DE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-11.23% and Dillards
(
DDS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

-7.04%.

Nasdaq 100

Ryanair
(
RYAAY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+1.33%, Express Scripts
(
ERSX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
and
Juniper Networks

(
JNPR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.46%.

Human Genome Sciences
(
HGSI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-4.16%,
Ross Stores
(
ROST |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.69% and Apple Computer
(
AAPL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

-2.99%

Strongest Sectors

Airlines
(
XAL |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+3.39%, DJ REIT Index
(
DJR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
+0.44% and Gold Bugs
(
HUI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

+0.00%

Weakest Sectors

Computer Hardware
(
HWI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
-3.27%, Retail Index
(
RLX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)

-2.62 and Semiconductors
(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
– 2.04%.

 

Dow -120.93 10,513.45
Nasdaq -29.98 2137.06
S&P 500 -14.53 1219.34
NYSE Nasdaq
Volume 1,800,911,000 1,505,786,000
Up Volume 284 (16%) 395 (26%)
Down Volume 1426 (82%) 1091 (72%)
Advances 966 (28%) 816 (25%)
Declines 2324 (67%) 2212 (69%)


Economic News

Store Sales:

W/W Change – Actual -0.2

Consumer Price Index:

CPI, M/M Change – Actual 0.5% Consensus 0.4%

CPI (excl. Food and Energy), M/M Change – Actual 0.1% Consensus 0.1%

Housing Starts:

Starts – Actual 2.042 M Consensus 2.050 M

Permits – Actual 2.167 M Consensus N/A

Industrial Production:

Production, M/M Change – Actual 0.1% Consensus 0.5%

Capacity Utilization, M/M Change – Actual 79.7% Consensus 80.3%

Ashton Dorkins

ashtond@tradingmarkets.com