Stock Crash Averted, Home Sales Up, Oil Falls

  • October 24, 2008
  • David Goodboy

Stock index futures locked limit down early this morning leading most traders to believe a major crash was imminent. Fortunately, bargain hunters and a surprising bigger than expected increase in home sales provided fuel to lift the market above meltdown stage. The DJIA closed down -215.05 to 8476.20, the Nasdaq dropped -38.42 to 1565.49 and the S&P 500 gave back -22.88 to 885.23.

Exxon
(
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PowerRating) – Dropped .03% or .02 cents to $70.37 on dropping oil prices showing amazing resilience.

Ariba
(
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Celestica
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PowerRating) – Was a bright spot in the storm today climbing 18.31% or 0.67 cents to $4.33 after the electronic parts firm announced that it will beat analysts forth quarter estimates.

Avid Tech
(
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PowerRating) – Fell 15.08% or $2.43 to $13.68 when the maker of editing equipment failed to meet analysts estimates.

Oil fell $2.69 to $65.05 despite OPEC cutting production, gold climbed $16.80 to $731.50 after a steep morning sell off and the fear index VIX hit an all time, intraday high today of $89.53.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 -215.05 8476.20

NASDAQ

 -38.42 1565.49

S&P 500

 -22.88 885.23

Economic
News

New Home Sales (Sep): Consensus 458K, Prior 460K

Consumer Confidence (Oct): Consensus 54.0, Prior 59.8

Durable Orders (Sep): Consensus -0.5%, Prior -4.5%

Crude Inventories (Oct 25): Consensus NA, Prior NA

FOMC Policy Statement: Consensus NA, Prior NA

Chain Deflator-Adv. (Q3): Consensus 4.0%, Prior -1.1%

GDP-Adv. (Q3): Consensus -0.1%, Prior 2.8%

Initial Claims (Oct 25): Consensus NA, Prior NA

Employment Cost Index (Q3): Consensus 0.7%, Prior 0.7%

Personal Income (Sep): Consensus 0.1%, Prior 0.5%

Personal Spending (Sep): Consensus 0.1%, Prior 0.0%

Chicago PMI (Oct): Consensus 49.7, Prior 56.7

Mich Sentiment-Rev. (Oct): Consensus 67.0, Prior 57.5

 

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