Obama Caps Salaries, Stocks Dip, Banks Worried

  • February 4, 2009
  • Dave Goodboy

The stock market closed down despite trading in positive territory for some of the day. Worries of Obama’s stimulus plan potentially not working rocked the financial banking sector. Positive news from the service sector lifted stocks initially, but it was not enough to stem fears of financial Armageddon should the President’s plan not work as planed. Draconian executive salary cap measures suggested by the Commander in Chief further shook bank leadership but may appease the public’s outcry. The DJIA fell -121.70 to 7956.66, the tech heavy Nasdaq gave back just -1.25 to 1515.05 and the broad based S&P 500 dipped -6.28 to 832.23.

Live Nation
(
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Costco
(
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Walt Disney
(
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PowerRating) – Fell 7.86% or $1.62 to $19.00/share after missing analysts estimates for first quarter results due to slow sales and weak consumer spending.

Travelzoo
(
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PowerRating) – Soared 24.19% or $1.04 to $5.34/share due to posting less of a loss than forecast by analysts.

Oil fell 0.46 cents to $40.24, Gold jumped $9.70 to $902.20 and the VIX fear index added 1.83% to 43.85.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -121.70 7956.66

NASDAQ

 -1.25 1515.05

S&P 500

 -6.28 832.23

Economic
News

Personal Income (Dec): Consensus: -0.4%, Prior: -0.4%, Revised From: -0.2%

Personal Spending (Dec): Consensus: -0.9%, Prior: -0.8%, Revised From: -0.6%

Construction Spending (Dec): Consensus: -1.2%, Prior: -0.6%

ISM Index (Jan): Consensus: 32.5, Prior: 32.4

Pending Home Sales (Dec): Consensus: 0.0%, Prior: -4.0%

Auto Sales (Jan): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

Truck Sales (Jan): Consensus: NA, Prior: NA

ADP Employment Change (Jan): Consensus: -515K, Prior: -693K

ISM Services (Jan): Consensus: 39.0, Prior: 40.1

Crude Inventories (Jan. 30): Consensus: NA, Prior: 6.2M

Initial Claims (Jan. 31): Consensus: 592K, Prior: 588K

Productivity-Prel (Q4): Consensus: 1.0%, Prior: 1.3%

Unit Labor Costs (Q4): Consensus: 3.0%, Prior: 2.8%

Factory Orders (Dec): Consensus: -3.0%, Prior: -4.6%

Average Workweek (Jan): Consensus: 33.3, Prior: 33.3

Hourly Earnings (Jan): Consensus: 0.3%, Prior: 0.3%

Nonfarm Payrolls (Jan): Consensus: -500K, Prior: -524K

Unemployment Rate (Jan): Consensus: 7.5%, Prior: 7.2%

Consumer Credit (Dec): Consensus: -$2.3B, Prior: -$7.9B