Stocks Extend Gains, Morgan Stanley Freezes Home Equity, Oil Drops Again

  • August 6, 2008
  • David Goodboy

The major US stock indexes extended their significant gains yesterday on positive
earnings news and further falling oil prices. The DJIA climbed another +40.55
to 11656.32, the Nasdaq jumped +28.54 to 1289.26
and the broad based S&P 500 added +4.38 to 1289.26.

Morgan Stanley
(
MS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) fell .22% or $0.09 to $43.10/share.
Having announced it was freezing withdrawals on its client’s home equity
lines of credit and was hired by Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae to offer guidance in
the mortgage chaos.

Freddie Mac
(
FRE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – The beleaguered mortgage giant collapsed
19.15% or $1.54 to $6.50/share after announcing massive losses.

Cisco
(
CSCO |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) climbed 5.78% or $1.31 to $23.96/share after
the company gave highly positive guidance for the rest of 2008.

Holly
(
HOC |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – In a strange twist of fate, the shares of
this refinery company rose 10.71% or $3.05 to $31.52 after announcing a massive
net income drop of 93% in the second quarter. Revenue, however, increased 43%
during the quarter.

Oil fell $0.81 to $118.36.barrel, gold added $0.50 to $886.60 and the VIX fell
4.30% to 20.23.

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +40.55 11656.32

NASDAQ

 +28.54 1289.26

S&P 500

 +4.38 1289.26

Economic
News

NY Empire State Index (Jul): Consensus -8.0, Consensus -8.7

Retail Sales (Jun): Consensus 0.4%, Prior 0.8%

Retail Sales ex-auto (Jun): Consensus 0.9%, Prior 0.8%

PPI (Jun): Consensus 1.3%, Prior 1.4%

Core PPI (Jun): Consensus 0.3%, Prior 0.2%

Business Inventories (May): Consensus 0.5%, Prior 0.5%

Core CPI (Jun): Consensus 0.2%, Prior 0.2%

CPI (Jun): Consensus 0.7%, Prior 0.6%

Net Foreign Purchases (May): Consensus $65.0B, Prior $115.1B

Capacity Utilization (Jun): Consensus 79.4%, Prior 79.4%

Industrial Production (Jun): Consensus 0.0%, Prior -0.2%

Crude Inventories (07/12): Consensus NA, Prior -5840K

FOMC Minutes (Jun 25)

Building Permits (Jun): Consensus 965K, Prior 969K

Housing Starts (Jun): Consensus 960K, Prior 975K

Initial Claims (07/12): Consensus 380K, Prior 346K

Philadelphia Fed (Jun): Consensus -15.0, Prior -17.1

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