Market’s Core Shaken, AIG Falls Hard, Lehman Bankrupt

An historic day in the financial markets led by the collapse of the once mighty Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch being sold to Bank of America. These events triggered a massive, across the board sell off adding to the profound economic fear sweeping the globe. The S&P 500 experienced its sharpest drop in 6 years and rumors swirl on the street regarding other large bank collapses such as Citibank. The DJIA imploded -495.12 to 10926.87, the Nasdaq was smacked down -81.36 to 2179.91 and the broad based S&P 500 experienced a massive loss of -57.99 ending the day at 1193.71.

Lehman Brothers
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– The once indestructible investment bank was forced into bankruptcy, plummeting over 90% to unthinkable penny stock status falling 94.99% or $3.47 to $0.18 per share.

American International
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was given permission to access $20 billion of capital per the New York Governor to free up liquidity. The market did not appreciate the gesture pushing the stock down 58.07% or $7.05 to $5.09/share.

Panera Bread
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– A bright spot in a sea of blood today rising 3.05% or $1.45 to $49.00 after affirming its 3rd quarter earnings.

Take Two Interactive
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dropped 24.30% or $5.32 to $16.57/share after Electronic Arts ended takeover talks.

Gold climbed $23.70 to $788.20/oz, oil dipped $6.49 to $94.69/barrel and the fear gauge VIX jumped 2.81% to 31.11.

Market Snapshot

Dow

-495.12 10926.87

NASDAQ

-81.36 2179.91

S&P 500

-57.99 1193.71

Economic
News

Consumer Credit (Q2): Consensus $8.5B, Prior $11.0B

Pending Home Sales (Q2): Consensus -1.4%, Prior 5.3%

Wholesale Inventories (Jul): Consensus 0.7%, Prior 1.1%

Crude Inventories (09/06): Consensus NA, Prior -1898K

Export Prices ex-oil (Aug): Consensus NA, Prior 0.8%

Import Prices ex-oil (Aug): Consensus NA, Prior 0.9%

Initial Claims (09/06): Consensus 440K, Prior 444K

Trade Balance (Jul): Consensus -$58.0B, Prior -$56.8B

Treasury Budget (Aug): Consensus -$105.0B, Prior -$117.0B

Core PPI (Aug): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.7%

PPI (Aug): Consensus -0.5%, Prior -1.2%

Retail Sales (Aug): Consensus 0.3%, Prior -0.1%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Aug): Consensus -0.2%, Prior 0.4%

Business Inventories (Jul): Consensus 0.5%, Prior 0.7%

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Sep): Consensus 64.0, Prior 63.0

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