Stocks Exuberant, GDP Surprises, Rate Cut Success

  • October 30, 2008
  • David Goodboy

Stock indexes were choppy for most of the day but ended on an exuberant note, with a surprisingly better than forecast GDP figure and continued joy triggered by the U.S. rate cuts. Fed Chief Yellen had sharply negative words about the economy, however stocks shrugged off her fear mongering with the DJIA climbing +189.73 to 9180.69, the Nasdaq advanced +41.31 to 1698.52 and the S&P 500 jumped +24.00 to 954.09 on an overall positive but erratic session.

Staples
(
SPLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – The office retailer advanced 14.93% or $2.38 to $18.32/share after forecasting third quarter profits that exceed estimates.

Intercontinental Exchange
(
ICE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – The futures exchange decided to purchase its partner, Clearing Corp, in securing trades in the multi-trillion dollar CDS market. This news thrilled investors who sent the shares rocketing up 33.13% or $20.24 to $82.03/share.

Hartford Financial
(
HIG |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – Plummeted 51.56% or $10.24 to $9.62/share after announcing its first unprofitable quarter in five years sent investors scrambling for the exits.

Omnicare
(
OCR |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) – The larges provider of pharmaceuticals to nursing homes climbed 24.38% or $5.37 to $27.40/share after beating third quarter estimates.

Oil fell $1.54 to $65.80, gold plummeted $15.50 to $738.50 and the VIX index advanced 4.02% to $70.33

Market Snapshot

Dow

 +189.73 9180.69

NASDAQ

 +41.31 1698.52

S&P 500

 +24.00 954.09

Economic
News

New Home Sales (Sep): Consensus 450K, Prior 460K

Consumer Confidence (Oct): Consensus 52.0, Prior 59.8

Durable Orders (Sep): Consensus -1.0%, Prior -4.5%

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

FOMA Policy Statement: Consensus NA, Prior NA

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

GDP-Adv. (Q3): Consensus -0.5%, Prior 2.8%

Initial Chains (Oct 25): Consensus 473K, Prior 478K

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

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

Personal Spending (Sep): Consensus -0.2%, Prior 0.0%

Chicago PMI (Oct): Consensus 48.0, Prior 56.7

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

 

Win up to $10,000 predicting the direction of a stock!