Metals Massacred, Dollar Attacks Euro, See Sawing Stocks

  • August 15, 2008
  • David Goodboy

The Precious metal massacre continued today as gold dropped below $800/oz continuing the steepest decline in over 20 years of 25%. This drop is attributed to the aggressively advancing US Dollar and metal holding liquidations among other factors. Stocks surged on positive Consumer data and lower oil then quickly retreated after it was realized that the data did not meet economist’s forecasts. This resulted in a see sawing session with wide swings and a mixed close. The DJIA closed up +43.97 to 11659.90, the Nasdaq gave back +1.15 to 2452.52 and the S&P 500 advanced +5.26 to 1298.19.

American Apparel
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PowerRating) – The Hipster clothing maker posted profit forecasts that may beat analysts estimates resulting in the stock adding 25.38% or $1.66 to $8.24/share.

Chevron
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Mentor Graphics
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Harman International
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Gold plummeted $22.10 to $792.40/oz, oil gave back $1.28 to $113.73/barrel and the VIX fell 3.74% to 19.58.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +43.97 11659

NASDAQ

 +1.15 2452.52

S&P 500

 +5.26 1298.19

Economic
News

Trade Balance (Jun): Consensus -$61.9B, Prior -$59.8

Treasury Budget (Jul): Consensus -86.8B, Prior -$36.4B

Export Price ex-ag. (Jul): Consensus NA, Prior 0.9%

Import Price ex-oil (Jul): Consensus NA, Prior 0.9%

Retail Sales (Jul): Consensus -0.1%, Prior 0.1%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Jul): Consensus 0.5%, Prior 0.8%

Business Inventories (Jun): Consensus 0.6%, Prior 0.3%

Crude Inventories (08/09): Consensus NA, Prior 1614K

Core CPI (Jul): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.3%

CPI (Jul): Consensus 0.4%, Prior 1.1%

Initial Claims (08/09): Consensus 436K, Prior 455K

NY Empire State Index (Aug): Consensus -5.0, Prior -4.9

Net Foreign Purchases (Jun): Consensus $57.5B, Prior $67.0B

Capacity Utilization (Jul): Consensus 79.8%, Prior 79.9%

Industrial Production (Jul): Consensus 0.0%, Prior 0.5%

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Aug): Consensus 62.0, Prior 61.2

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