Oil Surges, Indexes Jump, Lehman Drops Again

Stock indexes closed nicely higher after a very volatile session. Mega merger news combined with Middle Eastern tension and surging oil prices led to the wide swinging stock market. The DJIA closed up +81.58 to 11229.02, the Nasdaq climbed +22.96 to 2257.85 and the S&P 500 ended the session up +8.70 to 1253.39.

Lehman Brothers
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fell another 13.98% or $2.76 to $17.09 on continued credit fears and rumors of Pimco cutting off its trading with the troubled firm.

Rohm & Haas
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exploded up 64.78% or $29.04 to $73.88 on the announcement of its mega merger with Dow Chemical for over 18 billion USD.

Freddie Mac
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sank 21.05% or $2.16 to $8.10/share UBS downgraded it, and Federal Reserve President William Poole stated that the Mortgage-Finance concern may need to be bailed out by the Fed.

SunPower Corp.
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soared 14.42% or $8.83 to $70.06/share after winning a government contract to build the largest solar power system in the United States.

Oil surged $5.16 to $141.21/barrel, gold jumped $13.40 to $942/oz and the United States Dollar fell against the Euro.

Market Snapshot

Dow

+81.58 11229.02

NASDAQ

+22.96 2257.85

S&P 500

+8.70 1253.39

Economic
News

Pending Home Sales (May): Consensus -2.8%, Consensus 6.3%

Wholesale Inventories (May): Consensus 0.6%, Prior 1.3%

Consumer Credit (May): Consensus $7.0B, Prior $8.9B

Crude Inventories (07/05): Consensus NA, Prior -1982K

Initial Claims (07/05): Consensus 395K, Prior 404K

Export Prices ex-ag (Jun): Consensus NA, Prior 0.4%

Import Prices ex-oil (Jun): Consensus NA, Prior 0.5%

Trade Balance (May): Consensus -$62.2B, Prior -$60.9B

Mich Sentiment-Prel (Jul): Consensus 55.5, Prior 56.4

Treasury Budget (Jun): Consensus $33.0B, Prior $27.5B